I'd like to call the meeting of the city council public finance and authority to order.

Madam Clerk may have the roll call, please.

Councilman Grohl.

Here.

Councilman Kennedy.

Here.

Mayor Potem Twine.

Here.

Councilman Burns.

Present.

Mayor McKeon.

Here.

Councilwoman Vandermark.

Here.

Councilman Williams?

Here.

All present.

Madam Clerk, do we have any supplemental communications?

Yes.

For closed session, item number one, one email received regarding conference with labor negotiators concerning Huntington Beach Police Officers Association.

Number three, one email received regarding conference with labor negotiators concerning the Huntington Beach Firefighters Association, HBFA.

We have no one signed up to speak.

All right.

Close session announcement included in closed session.

Conference with Labor negotiators, Government Code Section Five Four Nine Five Seven Point Six.

We can see uh giving all the love that we share, and it's all I'm living for every day, every day.

Every day, so I'm so glad that Jamaican, good evening.

I'd like to reconvene the regular meeting of the City Council, Public Financing Authority, Madam Clerk, may I have the roll call, please.

Councilman Gruell.

Here.

Councilman Kennedy.

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Twining.

Here.

Mayor McKeon.

Here.

Councilman Burns.

Present.

Councilwoman Vandermark?

Here.

Councilman Williams.

Yes.

All present.

Thank you.

Tonight's invocation will be given by Heinty Beach Police and Fire Chaplain Roger Wing.

Would you please join with me in prayer as we ask God's blessing on this evening's city council meeting?

Lord, we thank you for bringing us back together again to discuss the issues of our city and to seek your guidance and direction to each council member as they prayerfully consider the direction that you would give them tonight.

We pray for your wisdom and guidance as they discuss each of the issues on the agenda.

May you lead them as they make important decisions this evening.

And may you bring your peace, unity, and harmony through all the discussions.

We also come together with gratitude for your faithfulness and blessing upon our city, our state, and our nation.

As we approach the 250th anniversary of the founding of America, we pause to remember the courage, sacrifice, and vision of those who came before us.

We thank you for the freedoms we enjoy and for the enduring principles of liberty, justice, and unity that we pray will continue to guide our nation through every generation.

As we enter the busy summer season, we pray for safety throughout our city.

Protect our families and citizens, the visitors enjoying our beaches and our local businesses, and the men and women who work the long hours to serve and protect the public during these active months.

Give strength to our police officers, firefighters, lifeguards, and public servants who faithfully care for others.

Lord, we ask for your wisdom and discernment for our city council this evening.

Our mayor, city staff, first responders, and all who serve our community.

Grant them clarity and decision making, integrity and leadership, and a spirit of cooperation as they work for the good of all of our citizens.

And we ask all these things in your precious and most holy name, Jesus.

Amen.

Thank you, Roger.

Tonight, the Pledge of Allegiance will be led by James Gormley of American Legion Post 133.

Jim Gormley spent 31 years in the U.S.

Army and flew many Army helicopters for 26 years.

Yeah.

He served three years as an enlisted service member and 28 years as a commissioned officer, retiring from the Army as a lieutenant colonel.

His military service included command and staff assignments at all unit and organizational levels of through division, two tours in Japan, and several short tours at the Pentagon.

One of the many highlights of his career was the assignment as commander for all air security for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

During his flying days, Jim was privileged to fly President Ronald Reagan during his time as governor in California, active for Christopher Reeve, Superman, and California Governor George Duke Majin.

After the U.S.

Army, Jim worked as a commercial actor for television for four years with that big voice of his, appearing in commercials for Sears, Chevy, Tahoe, Pillsbury, Honda, Farmer Boys Restaurants, many regional commercials, and several infomercials.

In 1999, Jim became an instructor for the University of Phoenix at the Southern California campus, teaching in the College of Business and Information Technology and the College General Studies.

He spent 22 years with the university and ears doctorate of management organizational and organizational leadership while there.

Jim also holds bachelor's and master's degrees from USC fight on.

Today, Jim is very active at St.

Head of a Catholic Church and is into teaching, writing, public speaking, and learning the piano.

Thank you for your service, Jim.

Please join me.

I pledge allegiance to the fly of the United States of America.

And to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God.

Indivisible.

Thank you, Jim.

Closed session report.

City Attorney, do you have anything to report from close session?

One brief item, mayor.

Uh City Council unanimously directed me to file litigation, the substance of which will be disclosed once the lawsuit's been filed.

Thank you.

Council members, would anyone like to make a comment?

Yes.

I'll go ahead and had a busy week.

I was pretty impressed with I met with uh I went to the kind of potluck for the coordinating council.

They do a great job, and they're served the community very well.

Quantus, they gave out six scholarships to uh local kids.

It was very goddamn impressive.

I mean, I could have had the grade books, I couldn't get their grade their grades they earned.

It's amazing.

Uh six of them got nice scholarships from Quantas, and uh I was able to attend that.

Uh young Republicans, local ones, they had three IDF Israeli defense um forces speakers, and that was moving.

They were all suffered from PTSD, and it was quite educational on the whole situation over there.

Memorial Day celebration.

That was always awesome.

No cannons, but it was awesome as heck as usual.

Post 133, hats off to you.

You guys did a great job as usual.

And hats off to Don Ramsey and all the people who helped with Cal Bung of the VWs at the on the pier, VW vans.

It was so impressive.

And I I out of all the years I've been going, I think this year was the biggest.

So it was awesome.

A great last couple weeks.

Thanks about anybody else?

Yeah, Gracie.

I just wanted to um thank uh everybody who helped out with the garden grove incident.

Um we were at the command center, our um Huntington Beach Fire Department was working closely with OCFA.

OCFA was wonderful.

They actually risked the lives of one of our fire guys.

He actually took the chance to go out there and visually be able to look at the tank to see what could be done in order for it to not blow up as was um suggested that it might happen.

Um so I'm very grateful for that.

The Red Cross was wonderful, they were on it and had everybody uh house.

Um also Ocean View High School had the shelter open and they always had somebody from staff on site.

I spoke to some of the Red Cross people and they said they have never had such great cooperation like they did from the staff from Ocean View High School.

So I'd like to thank them as well, and uh everybody that took part in this.

Um Golden West College was wonderful too.

I'd like to thank Supervisor Janet Wynn to opening Freedom Hall.

Not only did she get that open, but she also had her family there putting down chairs and beds to get that open within that same evening.

Um, everybody that just stepped forward, Senator Tony Strickland who reached out to the governor's office to ask them to keep the beach open for the people who didn't have a place to stay and have their mob their motor homes there.

Everybody just put something into this, their energy, their effort, and um that's actually the great thing about this.

You got to see the humanity in people.

Nobody cared who you were, where you came from, who you voted for, what you look like.

Everybody just wanted to come help.

And they actually had a problem, which was a good problem to have.

There were too many donations, too many volunteers, too many people wanted to help.

So um that was very uh encouraging.

We still have this in our county, our community, our state, our country, and it was wonderful to see that.

So thank you to everybody who helped.

Anybody else?

Go ahead.

Just to caveat on Gracie's point, the amount of information they came from our chief of fire, chief of police, Janet Wynne, Gracie Vandermark, Tony Strickland.

They were putting a lot of information out.

So if you weren't able to see it on the forums, I know I had a lot of different people, you know, asking if I knew different things.

So I was able to share so much information, not only from just reading what was being put out by all the officials, but just some of the uh internal communication.

So I really want to commend really the synchronized effort to make sure the information was passing from the incident to the public.

I was really, really happy about that.

And on the Don Ramsey thing, you got to give that guy credit.

He shows up with the easy off bottle, him and Mel Craig just clean up the oil spots on the pier.

That's the commitment that Don Ramsey will give to the city.

That man is amazing.

Does everything asks for nothing?

Hats off to Don Ramsey and Company.

Yes, sir.

I just like to thank everyone that came out for the Memorial Day uh celebration.

Uh it was deeply moving to really see just the heart and soul of our community.

We are a grateful nation, and we certainly are grateful city.

Uh, one of the last lines of our sale creator, it says that in the worst of conditions, I'll rely upon the legacy of those who have gone before me to study my resolve to guide my every deed.

And so just considering that, you know, what this is really all about is about living towards something that's bigger than and greater than ourselves.

I think it's a representation of those words greater love, has no one than this, and one that lays down his life for his friends, and so we certainly see it uh in those warriors that have gone before us and paid the price for our earthly freedom.

And I see it in the one who spoke those words of greater love who paid for it uh for our eternal freedom.

Anybody else?

I'll just wrap up just uh to touch on what Pat said just an amazing weekend.

What I really want to thank the City Celebration Committee, Julie, Shannon, Jessica's staff.

Um, I think when we first adopted the uh the calendar of historical events, I never envisioned that it would evolve into what the city celebration community became to create these really fun events for the community.

So, Thursday, we had the banner unveiling at the pier with our new Huntington Beach America 250 logo, which is amazing.

We had the Boy Scouts uh lead us in an amazing speech.

We had the American Legion Rifle Salute, we had the Sons of the American Revolution with the muskets on the pier, and most importantly, we had the cannon at the base of the pier and lit it off not once, not twice, but thrice, and which was amazing.

Uh, never thought I'd be able to lead the lead the city in a cannon blast out the pier.

So that was a lot of fun.

Uh one for the record books, a lot of great photos that I'm gonna cherish forever.

Really fun uh patriotic event.

Sunday we had the the orchestra, Symphony Orchestra right out here, uh at the in the bowl in council chambers.

Also put on by the city celebration committee.

Really fun.

Um they said they were working six years to do this.

I know Julie was instrumental, so I told him let's let's do it more often because it was a really good event.

A lot of people came out, like a concert in the park with a natural seating in the bowl.

A lot of fun, a little windy, but that made it extra special.

And then as Chad touched on Council Member Williams Memorial Day, the most sacred day, really just honored and privileged to be our mayor to be able to speak in that hollow ceremony.

Just to remind everybody that freedom is not free, and we need to really cherish and appreciate the gifts that our veterans who paid the ultimate sacrifice give us every single day to live in one of the most beautiful cities on earth and the greatest country God's ever created.

So thank you guys all so much.

And uh anyone else, all right.

Mayor Spotlight section.

So last week, Mayor Spotlight Awards, we gave the mayor's HB Excellence Award to Jesus Jesse Martinez from the public works senior wastewater uh pump technician.

Uh Hazu's Jesse Martinez embodies the essence of what it means to be a good human being to those around him and a great employee for Antington Beach residents for over 10 years and approximately two years part time.

He has sacrificed time and often works long hours to make sure our pumping systems are ready.

He's responsible for the city's 27 sewer lift stations, which encompass 56 pumps and seven other bypass pumps, including 21 generators as well as other maintenance tasks.

So thank you, Jesse, for that.

Next up was our code enforcement team who always does first class work, and we want to give out a special uh commendation to a few folks who went above and beyond for their earth day efforts.

We honor Darren Diaz of David's tree service, who generously sent a two-man uh team to assist with major tree trimming service that took five hours to accomplish.

We also honored uh Dave Garofalo, who has uh devoted countless hours since 2019 to rallying community volunteers in support of numerous cleanup efforts tied to code enforcement cases, demonstrating an unwavering commitment to both civic pride and public service.

Jim Jim Brown could not attend the ceremony, but we wanted to give him special recognition too for his countless hours spent volunteering to trim trees and manage vegetation.

Next, we had our local students from veteran booster club called Helping Heroes.

So they're great young young kids, uh, with an amazing 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to supporting veterans through fundraising initiatives, direct service projects, and long-term community engagement, and through coordinated events, partnerships, and outreach efforts.

This organization has raised extensive donations to expand access to veteran services and support programs.

So we just want to really want to thank Annabella, Brandon Newen, Ella, Tyler, Rylan, Liliana, and Nikki.

Great kids with a great, great organization.

And next, we thank Tanner Hummel and Rich Santez, Rich Sanchez, co-leads with the HB Fire Department Explorers Program.

Tanner and Rich consistently go above and beyond through their leadership of the HBFD Fire Explorer program, dedicating significant time outside their normal duties to mentor and develop high school age participants.

They provide hands-on training, guidance, and support that not only builds technical fire service skills, but also instills discipline, confidence, and a strong sense of purpose.

Their passion for the job is evident in the energy and commitment they bring to the program, inspiring your individuals to pursue careers in public safety while strengthening the future of the department.

And lastly, we celebrated the under-12 Girls Culture FC soccer team, beating out 70 teams and making it to the finals.

So congratulations to those young ladies.

Awesome work.

Thank you.

Alright, moving on to business highlight section.

So for night for tonight's business highlight, I just want to recognize a couple of our recent ribbing cuttings in Huntington Beach.

First, uh long awaited congratulations to Champaigns, now open on Main Street.

They took over the old IHOP location.

So this exciting new addition is bringing a fresh dining experience to downtown Huntington Beach.

So be sure to stop by, say hello to owner Matt, his wife Winona, and their team, and check out Locals Night every Tuesday.

So a great family-run business with a track record of success with our other location in Newport.

So we appreciate their investment.

We also would like to welcome the new ownership team at 25 Degrees, which recently celebrated its ribbon cutting, and we're excited to see this Huntington Beach favorite continues serving our community for years to come.

And congratulations to uh the much awaited coaches lounge.

So be sure to check out their food, they're right there at Magnolian Adams.

Um check out their food, their upcoming events, live entertainment and special nights.

It's a beautiful place.

He spent a lot of time building it out, spent quite a bit of money.

It's it's fantastic.

So please go there to connect, celebrate, and enjoy the experience.

Give coach some love.

And then with FIFA coming up, we want to give a shout out to Old World, which is bringing our community together to enjoy the matches and celebrate in a lot in a lively local setting.

So if your business is hosting watch parties, be sure to connect with Visit HB so they can help promote you.

And then looking ahead, join us at the upcoming Chamber of Commerce AM Connect, where we'll be sharing information on our 4th of July celebrations, summer events, and everything happening in Huntington Beach this season.

Next, getting around downtown Huntington Beach just got a little bit easier.

So the City of Huntington Beach and Visit HB, we're proud to relaunch the Surf City USA Bike Valet Program.

That was a great success last year.

It's a free service that makes visiting downtown more convenient and secure.

Just simply drop off your bike, receive a claim ticket, and enjoy everything downtown has to offer.

And the bike valet is located right next to the F 45 training on Fifth Street and is available on weekends during surf city nights and at major events throughout the year.

Now continuing with our minute with the mayor series, which highlights local businesses and the people behind them.

This week's feature is Bra Garden, located at Golden West and Bolsa.

Bro Garden is a locally owned business dedicated to supporting supporting women through wellness, education, and community outreach.

Owner Wendy Bess and her team are passionate about giving back and making a positive impact in Huntington Beach.

And thank you to Broad Garden for all you do and for the much needed assist that Councilwoman Vandermark for joining me and leading off this video.

Our second feature, we're gonna play it.

Yeah, go ahead.

Welcome to another episode of Minute with the Mayor.

I'm with special guest, Councilwoman Gracie Vandermark.

We're at Bolsa and Golden West at Brougarden.

Let's go inside and meet the owner, Wendy.

So, Wendy, tell us about Bra Garden.

You saw there was a need.

Definitely a need, for sure.

You know, all the women in the community, the most important thing is keeping your breast tissue healthy.

Working in the operating room for 20 years.

We really saw this need of how many ladies are not educated how to do that.

So we wanted to provide a service that could help ladies.

And one of the struggles that us women go through is finding the right thing.

Part of the problem with that, or part of the struggle with it, is finding first your size range, because no one is one size in every single bra.

But in addition to that, finding the styles that truly fit your body.

And you do measurements.

Everyone that comes in, complimentary fitting.

So aside from uh women like myself who come in and are just looking for a bra that fits well.

You also work with cancer patients.

Yes, I have assisted in every kind of breast surgery.

And unfortunately, you know, we're seeing more and more breast cancer.

Um, but having the knowledge for ladies that come in and you know, I know exactly what they've gone through, exactly what their recovery is, exactly what their needs are gonna be, but also working closely with a lot of the local breast cancer foundations and you know, really helping ladies, you know, breast cancer walks, all these things for them to also um you know help with fundraising and things so they can further help the ladies in the community as well.

Thank you, Wendy.

Thank you.

And here we are with another local gem in Huntington Beach.

So remember to support local and keeps their city thriving.

See you at the next stop.

Thanks, Gracie.

Our second feature is Hennessy Real Estate, led by local real estate professional Nick Hennessy.

Nick is dedicated to helping buyers and sellers navigate the market while showcasing everything that makes Huntington Beach such a great place to live.

Thank you to Nennessee Real Estate for helping families find their place in our community.

What's up, HB?

This episode of Minute with the Mayor takes us to Hennessey Real Estate Group, right off of Main Street.

Let's go meet the owner, Nick.

Alright, Nick, tell us about Hennessy Real Estate Group.

Well, I've been a residential real estate agent for years, um, and I just recently opened my own office right here on Main Street in the heart of Huntington Beach.

And then what'd you eat a Huntington Beach to open your business in this market?

Well, I've lived here my whole life, so I call it home.

I live on Main Street, and so I just feel like I'm a neighborhood specialist.

And then what sets you guys apart from other real estate groups, which is a I have an office right here on Main Street, so I'm really accessible.

Um I have a loan center here, so it makes it a one-stop shop, and really I'm more about relationships than it's not a transaction.

Less corporate, more connected with the community.

And do you guys just cover Huntington Beach or do you sell properties in multiple markets all over?

Orange County is our area, but we really specialize in Huntington Beach.

And then what are you seeing in the Huntington Beach Market in terms of demand and desirable place to live right now?

Well, definitely the downtown area is really hot and popular.

Um, I'm seeing residents from surrounding cities come to Honey Two Beach because there's still affordable places.

Yeah, coastal.

What makes Huntington Beach such a desirable market to buy and live in?

It's so desirable here because one, the school district's amazing.

We have a ton of events that go down at the beach and on Main Street.

We have amazing parks right here, and it's safe.

That's another local jam sold right here in Huntington Beach.

So remember to invest in local and keep Surf City thriving.

See you at the next stop.

What's up, H.

Alright?

Thank you.

And thank you to all our new and long-time businesses for choosing Huntington Beach.

We really appreciate your investment in our commun in our community, and we look forward to supporting your continued success.

Up next, we have community events announcements.

Madam Clerk, do we have anyone signed up for community events announcements?

We do, Mayor.

We have four people signed up to speak.

At this time, the Huntington Beach City Council will hear those who are here to speak on community announcements.

When you hear your name called, please come down and use both podiums.

Ron Brown, Justine Mainkoff, Alan Mendrin, and Colin Stevens.

Good, sir.

Great.

Thank you so much.

And good evening, and thank you for the opportunity to speak.

I'd like to follow up on a discussion from the last meeting regarding the community development block grants at Oakview and where the word fraud was used, albeit without attribution.

First, let me introduce myself.

My name's Dr.

Ron Brown.

I'm president and CEO of All for Kids, and we administer that block grant for you and for the citizens of the city.

For the past 30 years, all for kids has been working in Oakview in the Oakview community through federal funds administered by Orange County.

Through our staff and the organizations we work with this past year, we provided nearly 5,600 individuals with information and referral services.

120 families received family support services.

We distributed food to nearly 60 4600 individuals, provided life skill workshops to individuals, and 70 people received emergency services.

I've been with Allford Kids for 46 years myself, and it was two decades ago that the city of Huntington Beach reached out to me to see if we would, in addition to our other work, administered these CBD chief funds at Oakview.

We of course agreed to do that and have done so since.

The funding we receive at Oakview for all of our programs isn't sufficient, and we at All Fort Kids raised nearly a hundred thousand dollars each year just to supplement the work.

However, in addition to being a nonprofit leader, I'm also a pragmatic businessman.

We only count the funds that we have in our hand, right?

We all get that.

So we get that, and so in this case, the funds that we have come from Huntington Beach.

And you, as the grantor can do with them as you so wish, as long as it meets the federal requirements.

That's my my belief as a businessman.

So for transparency, I want to share that I know Councilman Burns for about the last 30 to 35 years, and we still remain uh maintained a number of um mutual relationships.

As a matter of fact, I was probably pretty skinny when we met.

After hearing about uh the last meeting's conversation, I reached out to Pat and he immediately took my call.

He didn't obviously know of my role at all for kids, but took it based on our history.

My bigger concern was in the illusion for fraud, not about the funding.

I asked if he knew something I didn't.

Pat assured me that he wasn't directing that comment at all for kids, but to the bigger picture around us.

I believe him.

He then shared that he'd done some of his own due diligence and went to our website since the name of the organization was unfamiliar to him.

He noted that he couldn't find much about Huntington Beach, and so I checked, and he was right.

I shared that up until two years ago.

We were known as Children's Bureau of Southern California and changed our name to All for Kids so people knew what we actually did.

So, also noted that we are completely revamping our website, and we're in the middle of it.

So he could not have received the information that he needed to make that decision.

So, after my conversation with Pat, I want to share that.

While we may at times have ideological differences, there are two things that I won't question and that I don't think we'll question about each other.

The first is our commitment to integrity.

Mutually, I believe we got there on that conversation, and secondly, our commitment to the communities that we serve.

As a matter of fact, were I a resident in the city, I might actually consider voting for Pat.

Hard for me to say sometimes, especially after I remember him dropping in on me one day while we were surfing, but that's okay.

I'll conclude by saying that once again, it's completely up to you and how you use the CBDG funds, and I will respect and honor that decision on behalf of Allford Kids.

Thank you so very much for your time.

Thank you, sir.

Next speaker, please.

Howdy, or good evening, council members, Mayor Casey McKeon.

My name is Alan Mindron.

I'm the proud principal at College View Elementary in Huntington Beach.

I'd like to take a moment to recognize the Huntington Beach Police Department mounted unit and invaluable and their invaluable service that they provide.

Recently, we had the honor of joining Officer Rubio and Officer Burke at College View Elementary for the last day of teacher appreciation week.

The atmosphere was filled with excitement as the mounted unit greeted students and parents dropping off in the morning, all dressed up and honored of the magnificent horses and celebrating our weekly theme of the best in the West at our school.

One moment stood out to me as a young boy who came who could only function in a wheelchair.

His teacher wheeled him over to one of the horses, and uh with the gentle nudge, he was able to lift his head in both arms for the very first time without assistance.

You have to I have to remind everyone that this is an opportunity of the medically fragile students, and some of their goals are just to lift their head just a slightly elevated level or to reach out maybe with just one hand.

But this student was so excited, he elevated his head beyond what was achievable at the time and reached out with both hands.

So we were really, really impressed, and it was just an unforgettable moment.

We all kind of looked at each other, we were really emotional about it, and it was just a big success for the um student and the opportunities that we had because of the units that were on our campus.

This was made possible by the officers and their commitment that showed and showed a profound impact that they had on our community.

I want to express my gratitude to Chief Para for maintaining our mounted unit and especially our officer Rubio and Bert for bringing such joy to the students at College View Elementary.

I heard that this was the most epic event, you know, and the buzz around the community and our school was just filled with excitement.

You can um I heard what you can bring horses to school, and it was so impactful.

Um I even heard students say that when I grow up, I want to work for the police department.

So I just want to thank everyone for their time and their efforts.

Thank you so much, and um what an opportunity it was for our community and for our students at College View Elementary.

Thank you so much.

Welcome.

Uh good evening, uh, City Council members, Mayor Casey McCann.

Um I'm Justine Makoff with Free Rain Foundation at the Huntington Central Park Equestrian Center.

I was there on that day, and um exactly what he said, it was unforgettable, and so grateful for all of our officers under the leadership of Chief Para.

So thank you all so much.

I just wanted to share some things that we've been doing at the Equestrian Center to build community, serve our community.

And one of those events was Chris Eptein came and spoke about his recent book that's out, and that is on Theodore Roosevelt.

It was very well attended by a lot of our community members, and um uh we're so grateful that he took the time to share his knowledge.

Um, we also have our monthly hug and groom.

They are the first Sunday of every month.

These have become so popular that they are actually sold out, I believe, for the next two months.

So I encourage everyone here to plan ahead and secure your tickets early.

This has really become quite um a success, and everybody that we're just getting out.

I see little kids and like, are you with free rain?

Yes, I am.

Um, so I also want to let everybody know that we have our monthly gala.

It's on August 8th.

I hope that you can all attend.

Um, this is a special opportunity for everybody to don their cowboy hats and put on their cowboy boots and come support a really special nonprofit that's here in our community doing amazing things, um, rescuing horses and providing equine growth and learning sessions for our youth.

I thank you for your time, and I always thank you for your support.

Thank you.

Good evening, council members.

My name is Colin Stevens, and I'm the treasury manager at the city, and this is a community announcement.

As we mentioned back in January, our super volunteer Steve Levin hosted his first ever class focused on AI scams to a standing room only crowd at the senior center.

He got rave reviews from the hundred plus attendees, many of whom said the information they learned about the high quality and level of frequency of AI scams was downright scary.

Well, we are pleased to report that Steve heard your feedback, and he is returning for a one-day encore at his original AI scams class, which is going to be held next Friday, June, June 12th at 1 30 p.m.

at the senior center.

Steve's course will explore the origins of AI and how it is now being aggressively used to skim unwitting victims.

Steve will provide lots of real life examples with videos of AI-generated fraud, along with simple steps that can be taken to avoid being scammed.

We know the demand for this class will be so big, so we are moving it down the hall to the auditor to the auditorium to accommodate everyone at the senior center.

Sign ups are not required, but please come early to grab a seat and please bring along a friend.

For those of you who want even more of Steve, he will also be offering a separate course on family scams held on Wednesday, June 18th, in the Talbert room at the Central Library at 6 p.m.

as his last class before taking his summer break.

We are incredibly lucky as a community to have his knowledge, so please come out and support, share the love and learn how to avoid getting scammed before it hits your pocket.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, announcement of supplemental communications.

Madam Clerk, do we have any supplemental communication?

Yes, mayor.

We have supplemental communication under the city manager's report, item number 16, fiscal year 2026-27, proposed budget study session memo and PowerPoint presentation received from acting chief financial officer, Zach Zee.

Five emails received regarding the study session, fiscal year 2026 proposed budget review under the city treasurer's report, item number 17.

Council member items number 26, three emails received regarding the proposed amended agreement for the lifeguard tower advertising license agreement allowing for content related to resort and casinos and a staff report from May 6, 2025.

Approve and authorize the execution of a three-year license agreement with Rio Media and Advertising Inc.

for Lifeguard Tower Advertisement Program.

Thank you.

Next up, we have public comments.

Madam Clerk, how many speakers do we have signed up?

We have 25 speakers, Mayor.

Alright, please call them down.

At this time, the city council will now receive public comments for any topic, including items on open session agenda.

When your name is called, please utilize the designated queuing area.

Use both podiums, state your name and organization for the record.

Mr.

Amory Hansen, Andrew Einhorn, Joanne Sosa, Charles Jackson, David Crowley, Dean Oliver, Brenda Glim, Roz Price, Tome Santillian, Russ Neal.

Amory, come up.

Please use both podiums.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

My name is Mr.

Amory Hanson.

I'm speaking tonight in support of I am 20 free, the application for a grant from the Orange County Transportation Authority to help improve the flood control in Jack Gray Park.

This grant will improve Jack Gray Park and pave the way for long overdue renovations to Jack Gare Park.

I urge the council to reaffirm that parks make life better.

Once again, I urge a yes vote on I am 20 free.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Andy Einhorn, 40-year resident Huntington Beach.

I oppose granting a CUP for the purposes of selling alcohol near a school property.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Can you hear me?

Can you hear me?

Okay.

Hello, City Council.

My name is Joanne Sosa, resident of Huntington Beach.

The topic is on the item 13.

And last time we talked about alcohol at all, I remember was a sports complex, but you guys did vote and decide to have alcohol, even though kids, families, that was we didn't believe it's a good idea.

So here I'm talking about distraction zone.

They already have beer.

Why draw a larger crowd of adults drinking?

Considering Westmount elementary school is only 0.4 miles away.

It's uh 1200 feet.

Just consider that the school children could be a target also at MISP because they're going to be drinking at that time.

Those people that are coming a larger crowd, and that they serve from noon until two in the morning.

They're open when the kids are at school.

That's true.

You could add drunk driving, you can add all kinds of issues.

But also, we live in an age where you all know this.

There's pedophiles and traffickers.

That's a great target.

Look, it's right next to the school.

People are drinking for hours and hours and hours.

I just think that's a very bad idea.

You're here to keep the kids safe.

Please don't choose alcohol over the kids and just have a better, a better atmosphere in Huntington Beach.

We we really don't want any bad elements for the kids to come around.

And you're adding hard hard liquor to a place that's already serving beer.

Why do you up and give the opportunity of ramping it up for something bad to happen?

I think you should avoid it.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening, Mayor McKean and Council members.

Um, most of you guys already know me.

I'm Roz Price, one of your 2026 uh City Council candidates.

Um, I'm speaking on agenda item 26 tonight.

Please know I'm not trying to argue with anybody against resorts themselves, but rather question uh whether city-owned lifeguard towers are appropriate for places of gambling-related advertising.

I would like to express my concern regarding the proposal to allow resorts and casinos advertising on our lifeguard towers.

I understand and appreciate the city's desire to identify new revenue sources and maintain fiscal stability, but I believe this should we should think clearly about this message that we're sending on some of our most iconic public assets in the city of Huntington Beach.

Our lifeguard towers represent far more than advertising space.

They're a symbol of public safety, family recreation, our beach culture, and the unique identity of Surf City USA.

While resorts may offer entertainment, dining, concerts, casinos, these are all closely associated with gambling.

For many individuals and families, gambling addiction is very real, and it's a struggle that can lead to financial hardships for many families, mental health challenges, and family disruption overall.

As a community, we work hard to address addiction issues.

I think you guys all know that.

I believe we should be cautious about normalizing or promoting gambling related business in a highly frequented area of family, children, visitors, and many people that come from around the world.

The projected economic benefit is certainly worth considering, but I would encourage the council to ask whether there are alternative advertisers that better align with Huntington Beach values, brands and family-friendly images would be most more certain to be on these beach towers.

Our beaches are one of our greatest assets here.

The question before us is not simply whether we can generate revenue, because we know we can, but whether this type of advertising reflects the image we want to project for the city of Huntington Beach.

I respectfully encourage all the council members to consider the long-term community impact and explore revenue opportunities that support both fiscal responsibility and family-oriented character while people are sitting on the beach enjoying it with their family, friends, and loved ones.

Thank you again for all your time and consideration.

Again, I'm Roz Price, one of your 2026 City Council candidates.

Next speaker, please.

My name is Brenda Glim.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

Character matters.

Respect for community standards matters.

And what we have seen recently should concern everyone in this room.

At the Rotary Club of Huntington Beach, Surf City Derby, a clearly non-partisan fundraiser supporting charities.

Every vendor was told the same thing.

No political messaging.

You ignored that.

Your booth wasn't just political, it was openly partisan.

Rotarians had to come to you again and again asking you to follow the rules.

It took more than four people before you finally complied.

And even then, only reluctantly.

That is not a misunderstanding.

That is a choice.

And when someone is willing to ignore the rules of a respected nonpartisan community organization, it raises a serious question.

What rules will you follow when you're making decisions that affect 200,000 residents?

Now let's talk about another choice the council is about to make one with real consequences for our children.

The proposed expansion of a liquor license at Distraction Lounge, right near Westmont Elementary and Ocean View School District property.

And let's be clear about the facts.

This school is already surrounded by alcohol-serving businesses, about 10 nearby, with two within 600 feet of campus.

And now we're considering expanding alcohol service at a location already tied to significant police activity from beer and wine to hard liquor.

We've heard the concerns, public safety issues, ongoing disturbances, and even a reported rape in the surrounding area.

So the question isn't complicated.

Why would we intensify alcohol service in an area already struggling with its impacts, especially next to a school?

This decision is now in your hands because of an appeal brought forward on behalf of Ocean View School District.

And frankly, the community has every reason to be skeptical.

I'm calling on residents, parents, and educators.

Show up, speak out, hold this council accountable because this is about priorities.

Are we putting children in neighborhood safety first?

Or are we putting alcohol profits and tax revenue first?

I oppose the expanded liquor license at Distractions Lounge because student safety, neighborhood quality of life, and public safety are not negotiable.

The community is watching.

With respect to the budget, I love an air show, but I don't know how much it costs.

I'd really like to know the real cost for what we've paid, what uh we're avoiding, not getting, and what the cost of services rendered are.

The other thing is that many Terry Park residents have spoken up about the reliable lumber yard.

It would be an excellent location for multi-level housing with higher city tax income than a warehouse provides.

The city has learned that warehouses are not great sources of city revenue.

The lumber yard is next to residential housing on two sides, and it is close to a park.

It's a great place for additional housing.

While the neighbors might oppose this idea of housing, they should be given a choice.

And it's hard to complain about uh noise from other residents.

Um this would give the current owner a better chance to make more money selling the property.

Um, and this would be a much better use of public housing or housing, residential housing with as opposed to warehouse with pollution and noise.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Can you hear me?

Okay.

Hi, my name is Tomoy Santiran.

First, I'd like to thank the old uh city council members for representing our common sense and the conservative view.

Thank you very much.

And next, I'd like to speak about uh agenda number 13.

Uh speak about my concern for the destruction lounge near the elementary school in Huntington Beach.

According to the official record, Huntington Beach police were called in from this particular business 28 times for the past three years, which makes average nine times per year.

It means that they have to cause the police close to about the months, once a month.

If they already have this much of a problem right now, I wonder how much more problem they will have when they are allowed to have a Furu Rika license.

Who is going to benefit a select of view or community?

What kind of influence and impact will this cause in the future?

So I appreciate it that this city council members will consider the long-term effect for Huntington Beach for the decision making.

And again, thank you so much for representing common sense.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

My name is David Crowley, and I'm the president of the Huntington Beach Sailing Foundation.

We are a 501c3 that runs a sailing program, and we utilize the docks at the 38211 or Av behind the fire station and the yacht club.

The docks, I'm here to support the replacement of the docks.

The docks are in terrible shape, they're over 50 years old.

The wood is rotted, the cleats fall off, the railings on the sides, the rubber railings fall off, the kids get splinters, and they're just in terrible shape.

I think the city realizes that because they put down a temporary plywood coating over half of the dock for the operative lights, and that in itself uh doesn't allow the water to get down below the dock, so the kids now can slip on this wet plywood.

Um the docks are also used by the public.

I'm down there for six weeks running this program, and we have kayakers, we have powder borders, we have Duffy users that use the docks.

It's a pump-out dock down there, and the city uh community uses the restaurants along PCH and they park their boats there by doing it.

Uh Swift docks did a survey a year and a half ago and said the docks are in terrible shape, and even the underlining support behind the docks are not enough to support the docks.

So again, I'm here to support the replacement of the docks down there at 38211 or out.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Hello, uh, council members and uh Mayor McKinney.

Um I'm the Commodore, the current commodore of Huntington Harbor Yacht Club, and I'm speaking on those docks as well.

Actually, Mr.

Crowley was incorrect in one sentence when we had the drocks inspected by uh by a commercial replacement firm.

That was two and a half years ago, and then the docks were said to be in poor condition.

Not only in poor condition, but they were built incorrectly.

They were not built to maintain the type of traffic that they get.

The sub-framework is not strong enough.

The plank the planking that they put on top has already started to warp, and it's got tripping hazards that are between a quarter and a half inch high, and again, they don't allow it to drain properly, it's gonna cause more rotten, it's just gonna cause more damage.

Um, yeah, these docks get used.

It's also about the only restroom in the harbor unless you go and pull in that at uh uh Peter's landing and run into one of the restaurants and use theirs without buying any French fries.

So any case that that's very, very important spot.

That's a lot of people use the restrooms, they go there for sea legs, they go there for rip, they go there for a bunch of restaurants and whatnot that are on that side of the harbor.

Uh of course the sailing school uses it.

Uh we have some charter companies that use it.

Uh one of them, I think even does charter work for a lot of the resorts downtown, taking people around the harbor.

Yeah, there was uh comment about uh who is in charge of maintaining those docks.

According to our lease, we are in charge of minor maintenance, which we do all the time, but it also says uh the leasey shall not be responsible for major capital improvements, overhauls, or repairs of such as a dock or gangway replacement, float replacement, and like so we we would like to call upon the city to help us with that, either do a huge renovation or a replacement.

The dock service uh two and a half years ago said it was gonna take about 150,000 dollars to replace the dock, 140,000 to re to repair it.

Now that was two and a half years ago.

I don't I'm sure that price is a little bit on the low side.

But uh any case.

Uh oh, yeah, the docks have been there since 1977.

They've been there a long time without any major work done on them.

I sent you some handouts uh yesterday with pictures.

I have an additional handout combined with these that has uh the report from Swift in it.

So I don't know where uh where put these off.

Okay, great.

Well, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Can I just ask one question?

Just if I heard I just want to see if I heard correctly.

Did you say um 150,000 dollars to replace the docks uh two years ago?

Uh 190, no, it's about 250,000.

250.

Okay.

Matt's was wrong.

191, 300 for the talk Timo, about 50,000, 30,000 for the permit, 20,000 for the permits, and 30,000 to put new utilities in.

And it would be less 9600 just to re uh take 9600 off of that if you just want to repair it.

So I'm sorry, it'd be about 200 and 240 or 230.

That was back in 2024.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Russell Neal, Huntington Beach.

Last council meeting, I spoke about the stack of three ideas which make America special and great.

These are, on the top of the stack, our economic system of private property and free enterprise.

This is supported by our constitutional system of equal justice under law, which in turn rests on the ultimate foundation of the biblical faith and morals of our Christian founders.

Tonight I address our constitutional system of equal justice under law.

This is not something to be taken for granted.

The historic norm is not equal justice under law, but rather a hierarchy of privilege based on how much you support the hierarchy.

Even after our declaration of independence held that all men are created equal and that our rights come from God and not government, it took both a revolutionary and civil wars to make this a legal reality.

There are many declarations of rights in the world, but our constitutional system made them a reality by instituting a separation of powers, a decentralization of government, and requiring the consent of the governed through elections.

Today, all of these features are under assault.

Equal protection is challenged by the granting of special rights for protected classes.

Separation of powers is undermined by the administrative state.

Local government is threatened by centralization of power, and consent of the governed is threatened by both the administrative state and a corrupted voting system.

If the heritage of our founders is to be preserved, we must love freedom more than we love free stuff.

Then study and understand these principles and finally use our political and lawful power to fight to preserve this gift of God.

Thank you, and God bless and preserve America.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk Claw, the next batch, please.

Next speakers, please use the designated queuing area.

When you hear your name, Paul, please use both podiums.

David Reinerson, Diane Bentley, Ann Palmer, Chris Waring, Randall Costello, Chris Reaney, Elaine Keeley, Melanie Brady, Melanie Brady, Chris Cluey.

Please proceed.

Does this seem as strange to you as it does to me?

This city council is so desperate to generate additional revenue or reduce expenses that they're proposing to monetize our lifeguard stands by selling advertising to a casino that's 70 miles away and could actually draw tourists and residents away from Huntington Beach.

Green light, the liquor license for a bikini bar that with both on site and takeout liquor, making it the 11th establishment selling or serving alcohol in range of Westmont School.

Approve two warehouses that can operate 24 hours a day adjacent to a senior living community and a park, a location that's accessible by one small street that can barely accommodate a single semi-tractor trailer, yet is zoned for 12 per hour that is being contemplated.

Cut or not fill 22 staff positions across a variety of departments, including police, fire, public works, and community services.

Yet, this same city council refuses to accept a commitment to donate $825,000 from the Friends of the Library, charges the International Surf Museum about one sixth of market rate rent for the use of the Main Street Library, and also appears to be letting them use more space than was agreed.

On this very agenda is proposing to advance a housing that they've been notified is not in compliance with state requirements, exposing the city to fines of $50,000 per month, in addition to the $170,000 already levied, proposed to award a three quarters of a million dollar no big contract to the fiancee of one of their committee commission appointees until the public outcry became too great, entered into a voluntary settlement agreement with the promoter of the Pacific Air Show that gave the promoter millions of tax dollars both now and in the future, despite the fact that the city was not responsible for the cancellation of the final day of the 2021 show, and despite claiming that the deal is good for the city, the council had to be sued to make that the terms of the deal available to the public.

If a deal is so good, why aren't you shouting it from the rooftops instead of hiding it from the public?

And finally, has entered into multiple lawsuits against the state, often using the repeatedly debunked argument that the city as a charter city is not subject to state laws that have general applicability.

These lawsuits have cost the citizens of Huntington Beach thousands of hours of staff time, hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines, and incredible damage to the city's reputation.

And yet they persist, appealing loss cases and racking up even more costs.

Doesn't that seem strange to you?

It sure as hell seems strange to me.

Next speaker.

Diane Bentley, 25 year resident, the city of Huntington Beach had a thoughtfully prepared and compliant housing element in 2021, before the current city council members were seated in 2022 and promptly refused to submit it to the state, declaring that the state had no right to tell HB what to build or not build in our city.

Now, four years and a very expensive legal fight later, the city has been told in no uncertain terms by a superior court judge that state law has primacy.

Huntington Beach, like every other municipality in California, must submit a housing element that identifies sufficient sites and provides appropriate zoning to offer the opportunity to build the specified number of units designated by the regional housing needs allocation.

The judge has also required the city to pay a fine of a hundred and sixty thousand dollars to the state, plus an ongoing fine of $50,000 per month until a housing, a compliant housing element is accepted by the state.

In addition, because the city council has not submitted a housing element, the city has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in SB2 affordable housing funds over the last few years.

This lawsuit and its associated effects have been a breathtakingly expensive experiment in defiance of state law, and it's not the only lawsuit that this city council has lost or settled at great expense.

And this is at a time when the city is facing a serious budget deficit for the current year and expecting more serious deficits in the coming decade.

Everywhere we turn, the city is bleeding money from losing lawsuits and reckless and fruitless culture wars.

Our taxpayer dollars are being spent by these reckless city council members.

It's time to replace them with individuals who will put the city the needs of our city first.

Next speaker.

Good evening.

My name is uh Chris Warring.

I live uh in uh Pacific City Beach Colleges.

And just a little history here.

Uh I've been associated, um, coming on 78 years old.

I've been associated with Huntington Beach for 69 years.

And back in the 50s, if you somebody might recall, uh, there was a trailer park that was right on the beach.

It was right in front of the old uh train that used to run between Long Beach and Newport Beach.

And uh we used to, my brother and I used to go over and put sand on the tracks for powder and put coins on there for and make little rings about them or whatever.

Anyway, uh that was removed from there, but then uh Pacific Owens Park came in.

And that what subsequently now is Surf City Beach Cottages.

Anyway, my last um my parents bought a home in there and uh I grew up in Azusa in the summer in the winter time.

I went down to Huntington Beach in the summertime, and my parents bought a home in uh now Surf City Beach Cottage is back in the mid to late 60s, and they were there and uh they bought another one later on.

Uh they gave the other one to my brother, and he subsequently bought another one.

That's his story.

Anyway, long story short, my mother passed away in 1989, my father 1999.

So I continued to pay because I was having problems with my wife at the time.

And anyway, when I came down here in 2003, I was paying four hundred and fifty dollars for space rent, two thousand and three.

Now, between there and when subsequently when um John Saunders, starter management came to town, uh it went up.

I mean, it was a good deal, obviously.

Uh, to when he took over, uh I had to pay about 978 dollars when he took over.

And within the first three years, uh 13, he came in 13, 297 uh dollars increase, 14, 287, 287 again in 15, so it quickly took me up to 1562.

However, uh I had already been retired for two years uh at that time, but I still had my most of my retirement.

I had it gave some of it to my ex-wife.

But anyway, uh, and it kind of slowed down for a while, but after COVID, the thing really took off, and I kind of associate with uh Huntington Beach, the current Huntington Beach.

For me, Huntington Beach is uh where Duke's is, it used to be a skating ring underneath it.

It was a uh fun zone type place.

There was two where the the uh uh condomiums are west of the pier.

They used to be saltwater plunges.

Uh I used to go to the golden boar, uh golden bear, Jimmy Henriks, Jenny Joplin, you know, the doors.

Great, that was Huntington Beach great for me.

But anyway, this is gonna be a two-part presentation.

I just take you up at that point, because basically they gave you a previews of coming taxes.

All my retirement pays for that space over in Surf City.

And that's crazy for senior citizen.

I have to work.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Hello, City Hall.

First, I want to thanks the chaplain for praying to Jesus in this hall.

That was fabulous.

Then I want to ask why we still have a Masonic Lodge right down the street.

I want to know who's in charge of churches.

I went to City Hall one time and asked that and they called the police on me.

Someone here, I think it was you, Mayor, said something about Israeli.

Is that true?

You're gonna love this one then.

I come here to ask you to help pay for the filing fee.

To take the Jewish tomod to court.

Yeah, I said it.

I mean it.

I'm doing it.

I love your silence.

Thank you.

Alright then.

Um Chris Cloey, uh Huntington Beach resident for past 17 years, candidate for AD 72.

Um, happy pride month, everyone.

Um, I'm kind of sad that we don't have the flag on uh on City Hall anymore, but it is what it is.

Um, but I'm here today to uh speak about a comment that was made at the end of um uh last week's meeting or two weeks ago meeting uh by uh Mr.

Pat Burns.

And I will read it.

Uh it says, Sir, if you can fill out a blue card, it'd be appreciated so you don't sound like such an idiot.

Um that was directed towards me after I had called you guys out for corruption, and leaving aside the fact that it is completely unacceptable for a sitting council member to say something like that to a member of the public, stating their concerns during public comment.

I want to talk about the fact that I actually did fill out a blue card, and I have not heard from a single one of you.

You asked me to bring my concerns to you, and none of you had the guts to actually have that conversation, and I think that shows what this city council is in a nutshell that you like to bluster, you like to talk, you like to make claims, but when it comes time to actually have those hard conversations, when it comes time to actually talk to people who may not agree with you on stuff, you do not want to do it.

You do not want to represent everyone in this city, and that's why we need new city council members because the job of a city council member is to represent everyone in the city, even the people that didn't vote for you.

And I like what Gracie said during the last meeting about how it's important that we understand who we send to Sacramento, because I agree, it really is important that we understand who we send to Sacramento because the person we send to Sacramento needs to be able to actually talk to the other politicians there and get things done and get money to come back to this district, which includes Huntington Beach, and that means they need to be able to have those conversations.

From everything I've seen from this city council, I don't think you're capable of it.

I think you're bullies, and I think you're cowards, and I will be happy when we have new management.

Thank you for your time.

Next speaker.

Hello, my name is Elaine Bauer Keeley.

I'm a 62-year resident, and not just a resident, but an active participant through my family's legacy in this town.

Tonight I want to share with the council and the public, as they seem a little confused on Facebook, the story of a library book.

Friends of the library makes a donation every year to the library, usually started with a request of money to us from the city librarians and the city director.

The librarians choose the books, they order them, and they come in a special way.

It's called library bound.

They're hard back, they're sewn differently, and in Honeyday Beach, they have a smart binding.

That binding, when you return your library book, it goes into a sorting machine and sorts the books so that they can be shelved more easily.

So these are very specialized books and they're great.

Helps the librarians a lot, and for over the last 25 years, the friends donation has paid for those.

So it's inappropriate for people on Facebook to say we're somehow getting library books and selling them for public money.

But it's interesting, we give all that money back to the public anyway.

We don't hoard money.

We're trying to give eight hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars away.

That's not hoarding.

So that library book lives on the shelves, is checked out.

Sometimes they're damaged, sometimes they're missing, sometimes they're obsolete because information has gone on.

Uh people do research, people learn more science.

We do need new books all the time.

So those apps, obsolete books, are weeded out of the stacks.

Sometimes they're offered to the friends of the library, but most of the time, because of their smart binding, it's not appropriate for us to sell them.

And sometimes they're damaged and lost, and and so we don't even have them.

So we're not selling library books.

If we had some back, I did the math and it's.

The story of a used book.

Probably bought at one of our local bookstores.

It goes home for a while.

It serves its purpose, either educating the family or people in that household, and then they don't have shelf space for it, so they give it to the bins on the loading dock and the bin inside the library that say, friends of the library, right on the bin, pick up a blue space slip and take it off on your taxes because you gave it to a 501c3, not a city.

Over 65 volunteers take those books, clean them, sort them, shelve them, price them, and put them up for the public to purchase.

That's been happening for over 50 years.

Thank you, Elaine.

Next speaker, please.

Chris Renee, Huntington Beach Native.

Good evening, Council.

Now, nothing says Sir City like an ad for an Indian casino an hour and a half away.

That really makes me think about surfing and SoCal Beach Life.

Vote against Measure 26.

It doesn't elevate the city's image, it just feeds into the jokes about Huntington Beach being the redneck Riviera, Fontana by the Sea, and the Florida of Orange County.

Now, for as much as the council has denigrated Long Beach, why are you posting up ads to make the beach look more like the pike?

You can amend our city's image very economically, cut your losses on the lawsuits, stop the sweetheart deals, and live up to the Pledge of Allegiance and acknowledge liberty and justice for all.

June's Pride Month, but people in this town want to pretend it isn't.

LGBTQ folk have been in America for its entire 250 year history.

They've fought in our wars, served in our governments, and led our worship services forever.

Trans folks fought in the Civil War.

Get over it.

A rainbow flag isn't going to turn you gay any more than a Trump flag is going to make you selfish and emotional.

The city belongs to all its residents, and it's time time to acknowledge them.

Don't sell the city for ad revenue to the 909.

And quit being afraid of a piece of cloth.

Oh, and by the way, please take out the surfboards from the main street library reading room.

It's not a warehouse, and that's not in the agreement that the city voted on.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Hi, I'm Melanie Brady.

I'm a longtime resident of Huntington Beach and uh educator, healthcare professional, educator including at a major research institution, taught in counseling teacher programs, several programs, nursing programs.

And I thank you for the opportunity to address you.

I wanted to urge you to vote against the license for alcohol on distractions lounge.

And the reason that I would like you to do that is not just, well, it is close to the elementary school, the you know, 1200 feet.

I realize there's not a distance maybe in the laws here, but even in the more densely populated urban areas, it's at least 600 feet.

This is more than that, but we already have a high density population or high-density units, uh, whatever they call them in research, you know, on the number of alcohol-selling venues, bars, restaurants, and liquor stores.

It's at least 21 in a very small radius, just from my quick look at the area.

And addition to that, I uh popped on some research websites, PubMed and NIH uh articles and the high density establishments is what they call it.

When you have a number of alcohol selling venues, it's associated with higher levels of violence.

So you have some populations when those establishments are there that are attracted to it that well, for reasons that are, you know, not ones that we want to have around our hunting to beachery and especially around schools.

So I'd like to urge you to vote no on that and consider maybe voting differently than you may have come to this meeting, deciding you're already gonna vote.

So thank you for listening.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Hi, Ann Palmer.

Happy voting day, and thank you for all you do for the city.

Normally, if I was standing up somewhere to talk about housing, it would be to rail against unnecessary high density and overreach of the state.

After all, we know that uh fulfilling our allocation is equivalent to maybe a hundred and forty-five Elon buildings.

But I ran some numbers, and it's actually much worse than that.

By the time you take an average of what gets built with the 20% and the inloof fees and what developers do, to fulfill the allocation, would probably be about um several hundred 20-story buildings on quadruple lots in this city.

And I would point out that these schemes have never actually reduced cost um in coastal cities.

So as a city, we are beyond fortunate that our leaders chose to fight.

And while we did not ultimately prevail in court, we won in a big way.

I speak to cities all over California that have experienced devastating transformation from their high density.

But at this time, I would like to support uh finishing off our housing element because we have in fact gone down just about every path we could.

So we have pursued every possible legal challenge.

We have looked at other cities' efforts, we have looked at those cities that actually won, and then were blindsided by uh Wac-Amole uh legislation that countered uh what they had already won.

I think that we should now finish our element, uh adopt everything necessary, and look at every way that we can mitigate uh in the future any unnecessary development and support an initiative that will be coming next year to return housing and zoning decisions to local authorities.

So thank you for all you do.

I support your decision in this, and uh happy voting day.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Good evening.

Tonight I have multiple brief comments.

Uh please deny the appeal of the planning commission's decision on the expanded alcohol license for distractions lounge.

We have heard repeatedly about how much this council cares about kids, and I have no doubt that you do.

However, adding hard liquor to a venue that young children pass daily is not indicative of the care you claim.

Please make sure this bar does not add hard alcohol to its offerings.

If the proprietors feel hard alcohol is required for their business model, they should find another location away from children.

I hope you will finally be adopting the housing element update and stopping the massive waste of taxpayer dollars.

I understand that state law doesn't comport with your personal ideology, but your jobs require you to be good stewards of the public funds.

Continuing to rack up penalties and spending even more on losing legal challenges is not good stewardship, and I hope you'll finally stop.

Please adopt resolution 2026 17, implementing a technology district disruption policy and in compliance with the Brown Act modernization.

As I've said before, having remote access to participate in the city council meetings makes city government more available to everyone, even though meetings have functioned since the access was revoked after the COVID rules expired, you have no way of knowing how many people are not participating due to factors such as disability, illness, travel, not being able to drive at night, or a multitude of other reasons.

This will also allow council members to participate remotely up to five times a year.

Illness or travel will no longer prevent you from upholding the duties you committed to when elected.

And lastly, I have to wonder again about your claims of concern for children and families.

How is it family friendly to be advertising casinos on the public beach?

I appreciate that you were trying to think outside the box to find ways to make up the deficit, but I don't think this is the way.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Good evening, Mayor McKeon and Council.

Um Pat Goodman here.

Uh, and I wanted to express uh concerns about the budget strategy that was presented uh to balance the budget.

Um, the attachments to tonight's uh presentation does identify the 15.6 million uh deficit as a um I've forgotten what it's called transfer from the fund balance, but um it is on there, and I just have some questions about the um slide from May 5th that showed some of the components for the um balancing strategy, and um there were adjustments for staffing and compensation and operations included a 3% inflation, and then the transfer funding, general liability transfer was reduced $3 million, and retirement retiree supplement transfer was reduced another six and a half million.

It doesn't say what the amount was, but it the same uh reduction or transfer was performed in 25-26.

Um, and then the equipment infrastructure, they um increased a million dollars and the infrastructure fund increased a million dollars, but I think that even doesn't compensate for prior years' reductions.

Um, and so I just want to get a better understanding of what the strategy is that these are um efforts to dip into reserves and reduce transfers to um other funds and what's long game.

It's um is as a former accountant, I don't know if I can ever say former, but um one of the principles is reserves are set up for emergencies.

But when we're dipping into them for several fiscal years, that indicates a serious problem.

I know that people have said that to you before, and I hope you take it to heart, and that we can find a solution to the structural deficits that we're facing because um there's more to come.

So it's important to have those conversations with the public and uh to find ways to improve the revenue sources.

Uh, and I know that you're trying to do that, and uh good for you, but um, it's not enough.

And when we come back to speak about the housing element, I think that that would be a good place to look for increased revenue.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Good evening, Paula Schaefer here.

The city faces a growing structural deficit, yet the city council is refusing to accept an $825,000 donation for public library books and materials from the Friends of the Library.

In the last 20 plus years, the Friends has contributed about 4.8 million dollars, nearly $250,000 annually for books and materials, earmarked solely for the city's library collection.

These donations are made possible through the hard work of volunteers who staff the Friends gift shop and the used book stores at central and branch libraries.

These revenue sources, along with estate bequests from library patrons and former Friends members, cover the majority of the library's new book purchases.

Friends is legally required to support its charitable mission, which is to fund the book collection, not city infrastructure or other city services.

Previous city councils have always celebrated this partnership and understood that the Friends monies could not be donated for city expenses.

Current city council members have publicly questioned the Friends organization, criticized its activities, and has for months refused to accept its pending three-year $825,000 donation.

Why are you refusing the money?

The conflict started after the voters overwhelmingly rejected the city's efforts in the 2025 special election regarding book banning and privatization of library staffing.

The city also lost a high profile lawsuit over library books restrictions and was later ordered to pay nearly $100 million $1 million in attorneys' fees.

In 2025, the council voted to require formal agreements with city volunteer groups because of what some members describe as their quasi-agency relationship within the city.

Despite months of negotiations on the many variations of the city's MOUs, the Friends proposed its grant agreement that the nonprofit maintained access to the library spaces for sales, meetings, and events.

To date, there remains no acceptance of this donation.

Many residents now believe the Friends is being punished for opposing the city's council's library policies.

This is unfortunate and short-sighted.

When Huntington Beach faces mounting financial pressures and aging infrastructure needs, near rejecting nearly one million dollars for library materials sends the wrong message to residents, taxpayers, donors, and volunteers alike.

Public libraries remain one of the few institutions that serve everyone equally.

Children's seniors, students, job seekers, business owners, families, and lifelong learners.

They deserve support, not political warfare.

The city council should put aside its ideological battles, finalize an agreement with friends, and accept this substantial donation for the benefit of the community.

And just so the public understands the city continues to work with their friends in the library on our standard memo of understanding agreement.

So thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening.

I've spoken to this council several times before about the housing element.

I am passionate about building housing in the city for people who live in the city.

Half of the employees who work in Huntington Beach can do not live in the city of Huntington Beach and cannot afford to live here.

I had the unusual experience of, I'm a member of a commission on academy.

And I was at this attending the Citizens Academy, and we met people from different departments of the city, and I met a fellow whose name is I don't know his first name, his last name is Slater.

Now that name may sound familiar to you.

And I said, Do you live in the city?

Well, like related to the city, Slater Avenue, our Big Slater Avenue.

And he said, No, I cannot afford to live in the city.

He's in a public employee for us.

I live in Stanton.

My parents live here.

They're the one whose the street is named after.

So I have been passionate for the housing element for quite a long time.

I'm glad it's on the agenda.

I'm glad you plan to adopt the housing element.

Please, full speed ahead.

People need it.

Many of you on the podium as well as in the audience have children who would like to, children in their 30s and 40s who would like to live in Huntington Beach.

They can't afford it.

Just as this example of Mr.

Slater, whose parents are the name of the street.

He has to live in Stanton.

So I just full speed ahead, and I'm glad that you're doing it this time because I am reading that the attorney general was planning to impose daily fines, $50,000 a month starting this month, starting June 1st, $50,000 fine a month if we did not comply with the housing element.

We've held off for a long time, and I just hope that we can finally get started and full speed ahead.

Thank you, next speaker, please.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

My name is Carrie Grossage, and I'm a trustee of the Ocean View School District Board.

I'm here tonight in strong support of the appeal and in opposition to the expansion of the liquor license at Distractions Lounge that you will deliberate on for the public hearing outlined in item.

Excuse me, item 13.

So let's call this what it is.

It's an effort to expand alcohol services at a location that has already generated concerns about public safety, police activity, and impact on neighboring businesses.

This is not about denying a business the right to operate.

It's about whether granting additional privileges to that business is in the best interest of our community.

Westmont Elementary School is already uniquely impacted by multiple nearby bars.

No other school in Huntington Beach faces the same concentration of alcohol serving establishments so close to campus.

We're talking under 600 feet away.

Yet we're asking, we're being asked to make that situation worse.

And I would ask you if your children attended that school, how would you feel about that establishment increasing their alcohol sales?

We have read the HBPD's report about increasing police calls, disturbances in the area, and concerns from neighboring tenants.

Those are serious warning signs, not justifications for expanding alcohol sales.

The city's responsibility is to protect the health, safety, and welfare of all residents.

Children, families, and neighborhood quality of life should come well before the desire to sell more alcohol.

The question before you is simple.

Has the applicant demonstrated that expanding this liquor license will improve conditions in the area?

And the answer is clearly no.

I urge you to put public safety, neighborhood integrity, and the interests of our students first.

Please approve the appeal.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

I'm Gina Clayton Tarvin, the president of the Ocean View School District Board of Trustees.

And I'm here to ask you to support the appeal brought forth by Councilman Williams, outlined in agenda item 13 to overturn the planning commission's approval of the conditional use permit for the distractions lounge.

The school district is concerned about the proposed intensification of alcohol service at the specific location and whether it is appropriate given its proximity to OBSD's Westmont school property and the cumulative impact on children, families, and the neighborhood.

Some may not realize that the Ocean View School District owns the property that extends to the corner of Beach and Hyle.

That portion of the school property is currently ground leased to a memory care provider that intends to develop a facility that will serve residents with all types of dementia.

Dementia patients, just like young children, are extremely sensitive receptors.

In cooperation with the memory care facility, Westmont Elementary will facilitate a program for our students and their teachers to visit the memory care facility residents as part of a program to create a powerful intergenerational exchange.

The entire area up to Beach Boulevard remains school district property and will continue to serve educational purposes.

Therefore, it's the city's responsibility not only to evaluate today's impacts, but future impacts as well.

As a board member, I'm entrusted with protecting educational environments, and as such, I cannot ignore the reality that students arrive at school every day through streetscapes shaped by the land use decisions made by you city council members.

We do not want distractions lounge to operate with an expanded liquor license.

There is already a high volume of calls for service to HBPD, including public drunkenness, assaults, DUIs, fights, threats of shootings, and even rape.

Knowing this, the question before you become simple.

Does adding a more permissive liquor license which allows uh which will allow hard alcohol to be sold?

Starting at noon during school days at this location, does this improve conditions for children, families, the neighborhood, and other nearby businesses?

I think we all know the answer to this.

Absolutely not.

The Ocean View School District respects respectfully requests that you take this responsibility seriously and uphold your obligation to protect the welfare and morality of those who live, work, and attend school in this area by approving the appeal.

Thank you for your consideration.

More speakers, please call them up.

Robin Braywaith, Kenan Durham, Eric Evans, Karen Carroll.

Please use both podiums.

Happy Pride Month, Huntington Beach.

Every June, myself and other Pride of the Peer team members line up outside and hand out pride flags to meeting attendees.

We are going to keep offering them year after year until this council stops wasting time on discrimination.

On that, let's talk about the math of your culture war.

Your obsession with targeting LGBTQ folks has cost taxpayers millions in avoidable legal battles.

Money drained from our roads, parks, and local businesses, just so that this council can pay cult play culture war heroes.

Is that ideological ego trip really worth it?

More importantly, do the residents think your expense expensive obsession is worth it.

Here's a reality check there are about 15,000 LGBTQ plus people living, working and raising families in HB.

You cannot vote us out of existence.

We are your neighbors, your city workers, and your youth we are even present in spaces of power and leadership where people think we aren't you can align with exclusion all you want but you still have to look at yourself in the mirror every night we aren't going anywhere.

Casey you opened up tonight by bringing up Memorial Day and saying telling us that freedom isn't free.

I'm glad that we agree true freedom is fought and defended against overreaching government actions and discriminatory policies.

That's why we're celebrating the federal courts ruling against the trans military ban yesterday if you're going to use service members as political props for your meetings you don't get to deny the basic humanity of the trans veterans who live right here in HB and don't need this council's permission to exist.

Since you've made it clear that this body won't do anything for us we're doing it for ourselves.

Pride of the Peer is partnering with the HBLGBTQ Resource Center to host Huntington Beach Pride this fall we are moving full steam ahead and we'd love to hear from the community members and allies who want to support that event I do want to give credit where it's due.

Your relentless determination to be openly antagonistic to the LGBTQ community through your voices and your votes hasn't broken us it's fueled us.

Your hostility has single handedly inspired our resistance supercharged our organizing and helped us build a massive community you wanted us gone but your policies ended up being the best recruitment tool see you next June next speaker good evening Huntington Beach City Council and Mayor McKeon I'm Robin Braithwaite and I'll begin by saying you put up a good fight you've done what you could to avoid inappropriate building in our beautiful city but we've moved up the period pyramid of interventions if these fines don't work we could possibly end up in receivership we're in a different phase of the game the penalty phase and your vote tonight supporting agenda item 14 the housing element will help reach our goals penalties yes 1600 of late fees which began in January of 2025 and now 5000 per month which started yesterday June 1st that's a lot but there's no free lunch and we've got a deficit of 15.6 million dollars I feel like that time as a teen driving down the highway on empty looking for the nearest off ramp and barely turning off the ramp before the car stopped please don't run out of fuel and let our city car stop that strong housing element of housing and community development we have about 4300 sites either constructed or in the process of being built they have worked with our city attorneys to revise the language of the housing element to account for measure U, pending projects, site inventory, navigation center OASIS terminology, and project timelines our housing element was due May 28th but voting yes tonight will allow us to show the cooperation the judge needs to see from usable to recover frozen SB2 funds likely topping three million dollars?

That's a guesstimate but I know that those funds were substantial.

In 2021, a city council agenda projected approximately 3.29 million dollars in SB2 funds over a period of five years.

So obviously, our noncompliance has had a cost.

Can we stop the penalty clock at the time of a submission?

Or will 50,000 per month continue to accrue month after month?

Voting yes tonight will reflect the strong character we have as a city and move us off the trajectory of unproductive lawsuits and painful fines.

Thanks for doing all you can to get us off this dangerous road quickly.

Next speaker.

Mayor, council, city staff.

I'm Eric Evans, longtime resident, homeowner, taxpayer here in Huntington Beach.

I want to talk a little bit about the proposed budget.

And in that budget is something near and dear to my heart, which is fire prevention.

I'm a retired deputy fire marshal, just recently retired, 36 years in the Orange County serving the cities of Orange County.

And so I put on a different hat tonight and come here as a citizen to speak out on fire prevention.

We have a great fire department, great police department, great city.

And you know, as as councilwoman Vandermark had indicated, one of our own put it on the line, brave firefighter to go in and check those tanks and check those conditions, right?

And harrowing for everybody.

So we all saw what that event was in Garden Grove.

Had those prevailing winds come from Santa Ana winds and come our way, and we had an event, it would have been the toxicity would have been extreme in Huntington Beach, as I explained to my family what the stakes were, what the prevailing winds were and what the conditions were.

I think every fire official in Orange County carries the burden of fire codes and how they allow us better living through chemicals, I guess if you could explain it.

So I would encourage you tonight to do a couple things.

One is reconsider any budget cuts to fire prevention because what's on that is a proposed cut for a senior fire inspector.

The fire prevention division is specialized for you in the charge of the fire marshal.

What is that?

Is to save lives and property through code enforcement to protect first responders and citizens before events happen.

So what happened in Garden Grove was a fire prevention failure of some type, maybe out of control, maybe accidental, I don't know, but it starts with the development of the project, the oversight, the regulation.

We trust the business owners as we should with regulating themselves, but we trust and we verify.

So I want to encourage you, secondly, is to maybe look into proposing a task force that looks at some of the heaviest industries you have here in Huntington Beach.

Because what happened in Garden Grove can happen in every city in Orange County.

It's not exclusive, and the risks we run, the dangers that are out there are real.

So I would encourage you to not only not cut fire prevention, but to look at staffing for our fire prevention.

It's not 24-7 like firefighters.

It's very cheap compared to other personnel.

Give the chief, give fire marshal Mullen the tools they need, and I would encourage you to maybe commission a study to come back before the public and how is Huntington Beach doing in comparison to what just occurred.

Thank you.

Thank you, next speaker.

Mayor McCune, members of the City Council, my name is Karen Carroll, longtime resident, and I am here again to advocate for your approval of the housing element.

Refusing to comply has worked for the past years, has been an expensive and losing proposition that has already cost Huntington Beach taxpayers suspend substantial sums and exposed us to even further financial penalties in the future.

Every dollar spent defending lawsuits is uh that we're continuing to have continue to lose, even up to the Supreme Court, it's a dollar not spent on public safety, street repairs, parks, libraries, and the services our residents actually need.

The people, people of Huntington Beach are paying the price and not Sacramento politicians.

Beyond litigation type costs and living fines, looming fines, Huntington Beach is also forfeiting critical state funds that are contingent upon having a compliant housing element.

These are resources that our community services require.

Uh, initially, when the first time you voted against the last possible submission, environmental concerns were expressed like my conscience won't formit me.

Um, these have not prevented the council from waiving environmental regulations when it deemed doing so beneficial for other events such as the air show.

Uh, yet when it came to adopting a housing element that complies with state law, environmental arguments were suddenly presented as matters of principle.

That position has not been legally persuasive in the lawsuits, nor practically effective.

Likewise, creative calculations projecting implausible numbers of future housing projects have been misleading.

Um, please read your revised housing element and um look at it has I will identify actual sites with realistic development potential, sites that not only satisfy state requirements but also create opportunities for private investment and redevelopment.

That is practical planning based on reality, uh reality and not performance rhetoric.

Most importantly, housing affects our children, grandchildren, teachers, nurses, first responders, and working families who increasingly find themselves priced out of the community they love as previous presenters have mentioned.

Approving the housing element is not surrender.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Good evening, council.

Thank you for your time.

My name is Ben Davis, and I'm here about agenda number uh item number eight.

This is the lawsuit between Southwest voter registration education project and Huntington Beach.

That's a little serendipitous that I happen to be talking about voting on election night.

Now I request that the city end this dispute and convert HB to districted voting.

Now, I'm sure you're all you all have strong feelings about the redistricting of the state due to Prop 50.

I know one council member quoted it as California ugly ass politics.

I get it.

I hate voting.

I hate voting suppression and dilutions in all forms.

You must see the value in districting, and it must sting to feel like your vote doesn't matter.

Now imagine feeling this way for years, maybe decades, like the residents and families of Oakview or Garfield or Winterburg or other neighborhoods underrepresented on this council.

If you really believe in having your voice heard through voting, and that districting is important, then you need to show that you care about the people of Huntington Beach and not dilute their vote and stop the Huntington Beach ugly ass politics.

Heck, if you do this and you get it done soon enough, and the way the lines are drawn, you might take me out of this race for your seat.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Thank you.

Last time I was cut off, so I have a couple more items that we could spend that $825,000 on.

I suggested we get some books on FPPC rules so that the violations for KC, Pat, and Gracie, the fines that you have to pay, perhaps we could avoid that.

Also, we could buy some books for $825,000 for Robert's rules of order, eight hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars on books on the Brown Act violations.

You're not supposed to be speaking to us.

Pat, last time, Casey this time.

Casey, we know that you're in the way of okaying the MOU for $825,000.

Heck, we know we need $825,000.

You could get you could make more of your campaign self-promotion videos for $825,000.

For $825,000.

Maybe get some money back from the parking revenues.

For $825,000, we could fight the 13 lawsuits that you've brought to our city yourselves since you took office for $825,000.

We could pay off the fines that we have for our housing elements.

It's tick talk.

Tick talk.

We owe $50,000.

Roger, what could you do for $825,000?

Yes.

So for $825, if you could just be so kind as to accept that grant, accept that check for it, and leave the libraries alone.

We'd appreciate it.

We'd also appreciate if you voted for the appeal for the distractions liquor license.

Thank you.

Yes.

Next speaker.

Hello, city council members.

First, I want to apologize about mentioning Minnie Me taking placement for replacing Chief Para for I for last the last meeting that we had because he was over here.

And it seemed like Minnie Me was over here more than Big Me.

So and I apologize because the reason I'm apologizing is because he told me that his mother-in-law again had brain surgery this time.

He's just gonna tell the sergeant at arms, and then I'll find out and I won't make any more fun of him if something happened.

But you know, I know a really good neurologist, he's my brother-in-law, he's famous, but and he's got his whole team, and they work way earlier than 6 p.m.

for brain surgery, so you might look it up, look me up or whatever.

I'll help you out.

So anyway, and Anthony, I really want to pay thank you very much because you know, out of all the city council members, you're the one who affected me the most.

The way that you guys you help out with the community for people that are broker or are down on their luck.

You really helped out, and I hope that you get re-elected, because you really did a good job that everybody sees.

That's really neat, and your whole staff is just awesome.

So, and then uh for everybody that doesn't know he's uh he uh he owns the um I'm sorry, I can't remember right now.

What is it?

Yeah, calico uh fish house.

I'm uh PCH and Admiralty.

Great place, and he's awesome.

So anyway, and so is this whole staff.

So next thing is that now the D if you guys are really worried about budgets.

Listen, the DA's time the the DA, the city attorney, the city attorney is I'm asking for one thing because I had a traffic ticket, I had a traffic ticket, and it was claimed that I ran a red light.

So then I asked for the history of the red light.

And man, they he gave me, they gave me this whole thing that they couldn't give it to me because it's secretive and all this stuff, and it's insane that you can't ask for any discovery without any blowback from I mean seriously.

This is insane.

Do you know that they're making I think it's you guys are uh the budget is like five million now?

And that's the only department in the city that is not allowed.

You guys cannot allow to lower it the budget.

Even if you guys have budget cuts everywhere, you can't lower the city attorneys budget.

That's insane, okay.

I mean, right now, I mean, I think it's the work of Michael Gates also, or when he was in power, and uh seriously, he has done so much damage to this place, including for me.

When he went to the civil, he was in charge of the civil rights thing, whatever I thought was for California, which isn't making any sense because this is Democratic City, but I thought it was just so ironic because he was trying to throw me in jail for uh for resisting arrest.

But no, the underlying charge I couldn't talk about because it was an instant case.

I guess those things you can't talk about anything, even though that the mayor and the chief of police had hearings and they said that I was in the right, they were still chasing me for the resisting arrest part.

And now he goes to becomes a civil rights attorney.

I mean the head guy.

Not over here.

Thanks, Roger.

All right.

Now moving on on council committee appointment announcement.

Don't forget the dog, Roger.

Oh, Roger, don't forget the dog, bud.

All right.

Thanks, Roger.

Next up, council committee appointment announcements.

Council members, do you have any council committee appointment announcements?

Seeing none, AB 123 reporting.

Does anyone have anything to report?

Seeing none, openness and negotiation disclosures.

Does anyone have anything to disclose?

POA called me today.

Alright.

Anybody else?

Spoke with the POM.

Okay.

Spoke with POA.

All right.

Spoke with POA.

Almost a straight flush.

Okay.

Moving on to the first public hearing, which is the appeal of the planning commission action on conditional use permit number 25-027 distractions lounge.

Does anyone have any ex parte communications to disclose?

Okay.

I will have the ball.

Madam Clerk, do I do I have any supplemental communic uh communications for this item?

Yes, Mayor.

For public hearing item number 13, Huntington Beach Police Department C FS report received from Councilman Williams.

Four emails received pertaining to the Planning Commission's action on conditional use permit number 25-027 distractions lounge.

Thank you, staff.

Please introduce the report.

Thank you, Mayor.

Ricky Ramos, Planning Manager will give the presentation.

We also have Marco Cuevas, associate planner, and Captain Kevin Johnson from the police department available to answer questions after the staff report.

Thank you.

This next item is an appeal of the planning commission's action on conditional use permit 25-27 distractions lounge.

The applicant's request is to permit on-site sales service and consumption of full alcohol by requesting an upgrade to a type 48 license.

The business currently has the type 42 license for on sale beer and wine.

Project sites located at 16612 Beach Boulevard.

The site currently has a general plan designation of mixed use with a specific plan overlay and a zoning designation of beach and editor corridors specific plan.

On April 14th, the planning commission held a public hearing on this item, and there was one speaker in opposition.

The Ocean View School District submitted a letter citing concerns with proximity to Westmont Elementary.

The planning commission approved the request, acknowledging uh compliance with general plan designation goals and policies, as well as land use compatibility and in consideration of the police department recommended conditions of approval.

Councilmember Williams filed an appeal on April 22nd, citing concerns that the project would be detrimental to the residents, as well as to the students at Westmont Elementary.

In reviewing the request for the license upgrade, the police department did not make adverse findings associated with the request and recommended several conditions of approval that would minimize the potential impacts.

Requiring that all the beverages be contained inside with no off-site sale or consumption, some security requirements and requiring training for employees.

We are without modifications or take an alternative action.

The city council may approve the proposed project based on suggested findings and conditions of approval that promotes safe service of alcohol and that ends staff summary.

Thank you, councilmembers.

Do you have any questions on the report itself?

Yes.

Go ahead.

I was wondering if Captain Johnson could uh come up to the microphone.

And I just want to I just want to ask you a couple questions.

Um we've seen lists that were provided to me uh testimony tonight, I guess you'd call it about all the crime that were committed supposedly at distractions, and I looked at those and and is it I was told that the the crime the the crime report just shows shows the address where something probably happened but it maybe wasn't uh uh attributable to distractions.

Can you comment on that?

Yes, sir.

So period we looked at, there were 28 calls for service at the distractions address.

However, when I do a deeper dive into each of these calls, um I come up with over that period seven of them, seven of them related directly to distractions and that's over three years correct.

So the other ones could have been a car stop that the officer put out that address where he was making the car stop, a pedestrian stop.

We do bar checks, so when we go in and check for compliance, that would be listed as a call for service.

So when you actually break it down, there were seven calls that were directly related to distractions over this period we looked at.

So about two a year.

Roughly, yes.

Thereabouts.

Thank you.

Um can I have the first slide that you in your presentation put back up on the on the screen?

Not that one.

Next one.

Keep going.

Keep going there, there, there, there, there, there.

Okay.

There's Beach Boulevard, and there's Heil.

If you were going north on Beach Boulevard, uh to get to Westmont uh uh elementary school, you would make a right on Hile and you'd go down about a sixth of a mile, or you know, about maybe a thousand feet, maybe more.

Um we got we I received a letter from the school district that said that right up there right at the right at the intersection of Highland Beach where you see the the um uh the dirt that is fenced off.

That is not a playground, is that correct?

You remember you recall that uh, you know, right where I'm talking about in the right where beach and high come together uh above the Hyle uh uh sign the dirt lot there.

I'm that's the city of Westminster.

I'm not sure if that's a playground or not.

Okay.

All right.

That I but I'm trying to ride my dirt bike when I was a kid.

Yeah, I'm not sure if it's continued.

It's still a playground.

I think that was illegal.

We'll talk about that later.

Um Westmont Elementary School is is at the very top right of the slide.

Um and distractions is indicated there with the red dot.

Is that fair?

Is that a fair statement?

That's correct.

Is that correct?

Thank you.

I've gone over there four times to the school, and I parked my car out on Hyle, and because one of the letters that we received and and one of the emails we received said that children are walking along Beach Boulevard uh coming to school and coming you know and and and leaving school.

Today, two children with their mothers uh were the only ones that we saw when school got out.

Uh uh that were walking towards Beach Boulevard.

99% of what we saw today, uh kids were being picked up at the school.

And I when I went a couple weeks ago, I saw a couple children crossing Heil into the neighborhood that uh makes up a good portion of that slide.

So I contend that there is no mayor pro tem.

Yeah, if you have quite this is the time for questions, technical questions about the report.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

So I just want to say that I don't see children walking along Beach Boulevard, and uh, and that's it.

So I'll just leave it at that for now.

Any other questions on the report?

Yeah, Captain.

I do.

Oh I'm sorry.

Captain, so on those twenty-eight calls that we've heard that had been listed to distractions at that address.

There's also a liquor store directly to the e west of distractions.

Correct?

Correct.

Top hat liquor.

Yeah, there's a connected to the building.

And then there's a Thai restaurant or something, Fouquet, uh Thai.

And if you ran those locations, they'd come up with the 28 calls for service too, wouldn't they?

Because it's the it's one address, but then they each have suites.

We ran Suite C, which is what distractions is, but they all have the same address.

Okay.

Um that's good.

And do you know how what the distance is from distractions to Hyle?

Like if you took the alley.

Does anybody know?

90 feet.

No, that's why from distractions to beach?

No, distractions to Hyle, up the alley, out the back door.

Yeah, that's I walked it off at 600 feet.

Go ahead and Captain.

I I think everybody up here and probably most of our residents believe that Huntington Beach Police is one of the finest uh police forces uh in California, if not the the United States.

Uh maybe not Roger, but with that said, when you evaluate uh an elaborated alcohol license, y you put a lot of time thought and effort into making a determination on whether or not you would uh make a recommendation or not.

Is that a fair statement?

Yes, it is.

Okay.

And I I know in the report you said there was a you put a limit on the hours and basically a stay inside order uh with the alcohol.

What are the hours of service?

Currently it's 12 to 12, I believe.

Okay.

Okay.

There's uh 2 a.m.

on Saturdays and Friday and Saturday until 2.

The main thing I wanted to cover was even if the if Beach Boulevard had high traffic, there would ne they're never open in the morning when the kids would be going to school.

Is that is that a statement of fact?

They open at 12 p.m.

Right, so the kids are in school, probably just about to get out.

Um so you you evaluated the use case, uh the location, the calls of service, essentially everything that you thought would be prudent and diligent, maybe not you, but your department, and you said there's no reason why they should not apply and potentially be awarded uh a hard liquor license.

Is that is that true?

Correct.

Okay, thank you, sir.

Any other questions on the report?

If not, I'll open the public hearing.

I got uh one just one quick question here, because we uh Mayor Pro Tem Twining mentioned the dirt plot.

I just want to clarify because uh one of the school board members mentioned what they spoke that that was owned by the school district and will ultimately become a senior living facility.

Is that correct?

Do you I don't know if you know?

I do not know that, no.

Okay, okay.

So then that dirt area is is the projected site.

It's currently owned.

I just wanted to clarify that for my own interpretation.

Um also, and then in regards to the um the description of the bar and bikini bar, is there a specifications as to what defines a bikini bar?

Is that set by the city?

Is that set by the state?

There is a municipal code, uh section five point seven that talks about um what a semi-nude person is under a sexually oriented business license, and it that's the only definition I could find.

I don't know if the city attorney can weigh in on that, but that's the only definition I could find on what a bikini cart bar would be within our municipal code.

And then you mentioned on the calls that seven of those they it was distilled down to seven calls specifically for the location, and then also in the event that there was a an inspection of some sort, that would be considered one of the calls.

Correct.

Or or and and of those seven, so there have been no inspections or there has been.

No, there has been inspections.

There has been inspections, and then what triggers an inspection?

Complaints, number one.

Other times we are proactive about things.

Um we received a complaint just today, and code enforcement was out there this afternoon looking into something at that location.

I had my special investigative unit go in undercover several times in the last few weeks to inspect things.

So complaints generated, but we also try to be proactive.

And when we do investigate these, when people want to increase their license or change their license, we do send our team in to evaluate.

Undercover?

Correct.

Okay.

And then do those reports are those reports public, or how does that ultimately get disseminated to the public?

Or how is that assessed as part of the decision making process?

Where's that information?

If they go in and there's a crime, we work with code enforcement to have the crime addressed.

So a violation of their conditional use permit or any other type of crime, and that would be addressed in these calls.

If they do not find a crime, they traditionally author a memo that we keep in-house for our investigative purposes.

And then the uh the current type uh license, I think 42 43, the beer 42.

Uh, were there initially conditions that were put on that?

Yes, with a 42 license, you're only allowed to sell beer and wine, not distilled spirits.

And so each conditional use permit has different conditions, such as surveillance cameras, security, um, backdoor needs to be locked.

Each place is is different.

So I don't have that their permit from last time, so I couldn't tell you what conditions they had right now.

Okay.

Councilman, the current business doesn't have a conditional use permit.

Okay.

It existed prior to the city's conditional use permit requirements.

Thank you, thank you.

That was the question I had.

And then do you know are they allowed to drink outside the establishment or is it strictly within the four walls of the establishment?

Inside, you can't drink an open container outside in public in California.

Okay, so that would be a violation.

Correct.

Thank you.

So uh Captain, you're saying that somebody said tonight that they're allowed to sell liquor at uh distractions and take it outside, but and but that's not accurate, they have to drink inside, is that correct?

They are supposed to drink inside, yes.

Okay, um in the report it said that that you you put 26 conditions on uh on uh distractions uh in in support of this of their their application.

Can you just go you don't have to go through all 26, but maybe some of the the better ones, bigger ones?

Council member, again, we we've got to open the public hearing.

This is probably we can talk about the conditions once once we've heard from the okay.

I thought that was in the report, so it is uh and you can outline them, but again, it's more it's probably fodder for discussion after you've heard the good with that.

Quick question for clarity on some of the forms, the the written content uh define this as a topless bar.

Is that a false statement?

Is this a top like new like topless?

Correct, it's described as a bikini bar.

Right, uh, I'm just seeing on some of the forms.

People I don't know if they were trying to incite emotions, but they were describing it as a is a topless bar.

I so I wanted for the record, it's not correct.

Correct, it's a bikini bar.

Right.

And if you were to go in there uh with your undercover, if there was things that were not kosher uh or legal, that would certainly give cause to uh uh restrict or give you reason to deny them moving forward with their hard liquor uh application.

Is that a fair statement as well?

If we found violations, that would definitely play into our decision making whether we are supportive of the liquor license or not.

Okay, thank you, sir.

Uh Captain Johnson, in uh your research, did you get an opportunity to uh check out some of the reviews on on Yelp and the photographs that are purported to be taken inside of uh distractions lounge?

I did.

And in your review of those photos, did you find any photos where there were women that were uh virtually topless apart from just some stickers covering their areola nibbles?

Yes, without straps in some of those photos.

On the Yelp review, there are photos that depict women as you described.

Okay.

Just with nothing more than maybe like a couple I voted stickers over their nibbles, correct?

Okay, thank you for that clarification.

Um staff.

If we could pull up the PD's calls for service, I think it's attachment number uh thirteen.

I would like a little bit of clarification on on some of these.

This would be uh the larger list, it's the last seventy-three calls for service to that area.

Uh and maybe we can highlight some of the seven that you had distilled in that three-year period.

So I'll give them an opportunity here.

So let's take uh number fourteen.

If you can scroll down to number fourteen there, and I think this would fall into that category of seven.

I believe this would probably be one of yours.

It's the uh rape case on May 1st, 2023.

Says rape report case, rape report, location incident occurred at distractions bar around 2130 hours.

Uh victim currently at Orange Coast Memorial Investigation at Anaheim Regional.

Uh, goes on uh to name the apartments, uh subject description suspect possibly named Gabriel, no further description, provided victim reported that the suspect approached from behind and sexually assaulted her with penetration, and it gives a case number.

Um were these two subjects were they were they drinking at distractions, were they being served alcohol at at the bar?

Per the report, yes.

Okay.

And so, whatever the context of the events are that led up to that point, you know, there was a level of intoxication.

Perhaps the woman was um vulnerable, obviously, to some degree because of that intoxication and in following those events.

Uh this the stripe occurred that originated at distractions.

That's accurate.

They were drinking at the bar, and in fact, the uh the bar stopped serving them due to their level intoxication.

They then left the bar, went to uh top hat liquor to purchase additional alcohol, and then went to the viewpoint apartments where the uh alleged rape occurred.

Okay.

Yeah, so the drinking got to a point where there's like you've been served so much, it's time to cut you off.

It's not looking very good.

If we can go to number fifty-four on the calls for service.

And so this reads physical fight, location, bar, exterior and interior.

Uh subsequently Orange Coast Memorial Hospital victim uh is a male, white late uh late forties, intoxicated, had been kicked out of the bar and was looking for his keys, found lying on the ground bleeding from the back of his head.

Uh reported conscious and breathing, second subject male white fifties, two males were involved in a physical altercation outside a bar.

One male was knocked to the ground and struck to his head.

A bar manager reported a bouncer, grabbed the subject and threw him to the floor, then left him there.

The subject was found bleeding from the back of his head inside the bar.

Uh medical units were requested and staged nearby before being cleared to enter.

Reporting party left the scene after confirming the subject on the ground was breathing.

Additional callers report believing the victim was dying.

Medical aid taken to Orange Coast Memorial.

Uh if we can go to call number something on that.

Yes.

Is that the date 2018?

Over eight years ago?

Correct.

Okay, I thought we'd just go back three years.

Okay.

Just so I can clarify something.

Um, the report that you're referring to is a 10-year report.

Correct.

Last seventy-three calls.

Correct.

I say that there was 28 calls, that's only the last three years.

So 28 calls last three years calls for service, and then this is a 10-year report that covers the last seventy-three calls for service.

Uh let's go ahead and check out number 32.

Maybe a more recent one.

Uh number 32.

Brandishing weapon just occurred, norms and distraction bar, reporting party stated a security guard pointed a pistol at him.

A second individual wearing a mask, ski mask entered and physically assaulted the reporting party's friend, allegedly motivated by the victim's race, white.

The victim was punched in the mouth and declined medical assistance.

Security guard, black male 30s wearing all black clothing.

Second suspect, male wearing wearing a ski mask, reported also employed at distractions, and lives behind the bar.

Reporting party relocated to norms following the incident.

Contact attempted at distractions.

Based on multiple inconsistencies, and statement from the involved parties could not confirm that a crime occurred, conducted no further investigation.

And I'm just trying to get a sense of some of the things that are happening here, right?

I'm not gonna go through all 72, but um maybe let's take a look at number 40 here.

Number 40, misdemeanor assault just occurred.

Reporting party states they were assaulted by bouncer and is requesting medical assistance outside and establishment.

Bouncer returned inside after the incident, outside with luggage following the incident, bouncer returned inside the establishment after the alleged assault.

Reporting party requested paramedics, medics are contacted.

No mention of distractions, however, due to the call about a bouncer, presumably uh distractions.

Uh let's go to call or let's go to number uh 41.

Next one down.

Um I'm just gonna jump here just for brevity's sake.

Uh second sentence, reporting party stated the suspect pulled a gun from the pocket behind the rear passenger seat of a vehicle, chambered around, but never pointed the weapon at the reporting party.

The incident occurred after the reporting party was asked to leave a bar for running out of money.

Uh we'll go to uh let's go to number seven, more recent one.

And again, this just kind of gives us a sense of the types of things that are going on at this establishment.

Number seven, disturbing the peace.

This is just 2024, drunk subject refusing to leave premises, position outside front door, suspect was yelling and threatening to shoot the reporting party.

Though no weapon was observed, subject became possibly physical, and the caller had to disconnect.

Subject fled the area upon hearing.

Officers and sirens uh gone on arrival.

I'll do one more.

There's more, but let's go to 28.

I can I can feel you big.

Number 28.

Rape report.

Uh reporting party states the incident occurred on 1107.

She reports consuming three beers, but blacked out, leading her to believe she may have been drugged and roofied.

We'll pause right there.

Um, and so again, this just kind of gives a sense as is uh a list of the last 73 calls.

Um, you know, Captain appreciates you taking the time and uh maybe when we come back to deliberate, there'll be opportunity to uh dialogue a little bit more.

Yes, just one more question.

All these all these reports, these these you know, picked out reports that uh councilman Williams brought up.

Did they serve distilled liquor there then?

Or was it just beer and wine?

As far as I understand, they've only had beer and wine.

Okay, thank you.

One question I guess for me then uh would be if that's what happens on beer and wine.

What might happen on distilled spirits?

I mean, on that note, let's be fair.

This happens at every high-end hotel, every sports arena, every uh it happens on the beach.

This this kind of stuff.

It's unfortunate, but violence happens, there's irresponsible people, and bad things happen.

Uh, and that's life.

It's terrible, but uh that happens at any venue, any household, any sporting event, anywhere in the world.

It's time to open the public.

All right, we're gonna open the public hearing.

Madam Clerk, do we have anyone sign up to speak?

Yes, Mayor.

At this time, council will receive public comments for the public hearing item only.

Each speaker is allotted three minutes.

When your name is called, please approach.

Use both podiums, state your name and organization for the record.

Roz Price, Jill Salber, Brian Thenis, Don M.

Thomas, Gina Clayton Tarvin, Carrie Gorsuch, Peter Blyde.

Please proceed.

Alrighty then.

Uh good evening.

Um Mayor McKeon, Council members.

Uh, you know, I'd like to thank you for everything you guys do to uh keep our city safe and uh one of the best places to live in the world.

I think you guys are doing a great job.

Uh Brian Thenis here, uh planning commissioner, city council candidate, uh longtime resident.

Um I um was on the planning commission.

I voted in favor of this um or or to deny the uh appeal of the conditional use permit um the for distractions lounge.

Um personally I agree with uh uh um Williams uh councilman Williams, sorry.

I I don't like these uh these alcohol only uh type 48 um establishments.

I think they're um I don't get it.

I don't I understand why people would we want to go to those, but um my personal opinion shouldn't matter.

Um, you know, as a legislative body, we have to take all the facts into consideration, and we have to make a determination that's within our our scope of of preview.

And so my survey department did some research.

Uh assessors parcel 68, which is on the corner of Beach Boulevard and Hyle is uh leased to a uh a care facility long-term lease, that's 542 feet, by the way.

Pat, to answer your question down the alley.

Uh the school is on a parcel 69, and it's uh it is over 700 feet from parcel line to parcel line, so it's separated by 700 feet.

But the City of Huntington Beach code only requires a conditional use permit for 300 feet.

Um, state ABC is 600 feet, and um and and um the state um uh uh PTA recommends 600 feet from a school.

So those are good recommendations.

I and I don't know why the city we should have we should adopt the code to separate those by 600 feet.

Neighboring cities, Costa Mesa had the biggest dimensions 200 feet, Fountain Valley was 50 feet, and SEAL Beach had zero feet.

But the biggest reason for us to grant the conditional use permit was now we can implement conditions that as a city, we now have an easier pathway.

If this becomes a nuisance, if this establishment becomes a nuisance, we can easily shut them down.

And and um right now they're grandfathered in without any conditions.

We've we've provided a lot of additional conditions that we think will help.

I think it's a step forward to help prevent uh any further uh commotions from this establishment, and the city has a clear path and a way to uh you know put them back in check or shut them down, and I think this was the best way to make that happen.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Hey guys, Roz Price here again.

Um for me to speak on something, I really have to be in it, see it, and live it.

So I went to Distractions this past Saturday night after I went to church.

Thank God I had my armor of protection on, I'll tell you that much.

You have a packet in front of you.

Um so as I go through this, you guys can check it out.

Um, tonight I respectfully ask the council to carefully consider whether expanding alcohol privileges at distractions lounge is truly the best interest of our community.

Please note I am against expanding.

I support local businesses and recognize the important role they play in Huntington Beach as economy at the same time when considering an expansion from beer and wine service to broader alcohol privileges, public safety, neighborhood compatibility, and compliance with existing license requirements must be at the forefront.

I know as a woman what a bathing suit is.

I know that most of the women here know what a bathing suit is.

These girls, these girls I say, because they're younger than my daughter, are not wearing bathing suits.

Look at the second part of your packet, open it up and look at it with your eyes and see what the women are wearing.

They're not wearing bathing suits.

This is on the border of being a sex solicitation bar.

I walked in there to young girls wearing nipple covers.

That was it.

Okay.

Um there's so many incidences listed on your report in the last 10 years.

There's over 73, and I know you guys don't think that's a big deal, but just as many people believe here, you have alcohol, you have wine and liquor being served, and if you you or wine and beer, if you throw in that liquor, things are gonna get crazy.

Um during my visit to uh distractions.

I spoke to several patrons.

Some individuals stated that if certain products weren't available inside the establishment when they were already over the legal intoxication limit, customers could go to the nearby liquor store, purchase them, and go out back and take roofies.

I was offered multiple times to take roofies.

I said, I don't want to get roofied.

That doesn't sound like a fun thing.

What's that mean?

They said, Oh, don't worry, leave your stuff here.

We're gonna go to the liquor store next door.

We're gonna get some shots because the ones that they sell in the in the establishment there, which I guess aren't true shots, but they promote them as shots because they asked me when I got there, did I want a shot with a beer?

Okay, and they take the shots from the liquor store and they throw them up on the roof.

The back door is not locked.

The gentleman's restroom has swinging salur saloon doors, so anybody could walk by and see what a gentleman's doing in the bathroom.

This isn't the kind of bar that we want in our city, and I realize that this happens everywhere, Don.

I know that this kind of stuff happens everywhere, but it's not something that we want to represent our city.

And whether or not the moms are walking there at whatever time, people go down that alley.

These people drinking there park in the Norms parking lot so it doesn't look like they're leaving distractions.

Um, I respectfully request the city council to deny this request.

Many, many residents, along with the children, could be part of the issues that are taking place there, whether or not it's during the time that they're walking.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

So I actually happen to live at uh one six five nine one weight line weight lane.

That is the house directly behind the white vehicle that was in that first photo.

Uh I had the very large avocado tree.

I've lived there for uh coming up five years.

I believe one of those phone calls was my neighbor two houses to the left.

I don't know his last name.

First name is Jeff.

He owns a company called Classic Cars.

He does like restorations.

I watched the gentleman try to kick in his door.

I saw uh like eight different cop cars show up to arrest this individual.

Uh about a month ago, three neighbors to my right, had an altercation with uh a group of people from just on the back side of that wall.

Um in the four years I've been there, at least three separate times I've had to walk somebody back out of my backyard or off of my retaining wall because they're up there trying to pick uh avocados off the tree and they're very drunk.

Uh last night there was an issue where somebody was uh a group of people were kicking.

I have the um maroon um gate that opens up, and when I open it up, I can see the door, I can see all the commotion going in and out.

I can hear all the conversations that are being had on an uh um on a nightly basis.

I don't want to say that you know distractions is like um that they don't do what they're supposed to do, but with alcohol, there definitely comes a lot of extra things like that.

A lot of uh people are getting drunk, causing commotions coming over my wall.

I've had two bicycles stolen.

Uh the neighbor three houses down had his fish tackle stolen.

He had an altercation, he put so many handcuffs.

This is just two months ago, and then like I said, Jeff uh had his door, they try to kick it down, so that's it.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Okay, I'd like to take some extra time.

Um, I'm Don Thomas, and um I lived in um Huntington Beach.

I grew up in Huntington Beach.

Um now I go to church in Huntington Beach.

Um I became a born-again Christian and I I go to um the cavalry uh the harbor.

And um this was me, but I was a victim of one of those bars.

I was a model.

I also did hair.

Let me tell you, I'd like to know how many statistically don't call in.

Because whatever you're saying over here, you're wrong.

Because the statistics are that there's a lot more that goes on because I was drugged twice.

I was drugged twice.

And what else goes on?

What else goes on that nobody talks about that are too embarrassed to talk about?

I'm here tonight because I was told what's going on over there.

I actually became part of a team called American Thunder.

Anti-drug tobacco peer pressure and violence, alcohol included, anti-drug tobacco peer pressure violence, and alcohol.

Because when you get into hard alcohol, it gets a lot worse.

And I have had many of my clients as well attacked and mutilated because of hard alcohol.

I implore you to not accept making it wider and worse.

And because there are going to be, see, 12 noon, there's gonna be an old people's home, and then there's children, and the attacks that can happen after drinking hard alcohol is worse than beer and wine.

I've seen it, I've experienced it, and I've been drugged.

Please, this is absolutely ridiculous.

And when I hear somebody trying to, you know, downplay all of these um occurrences.

I want to know how many more people have not spoken up.

And we're gonna make this more widespread and worse, and it's a cesspool.

It's a cesspool in those bars, especially when you add more to it.

And then you've got sexual promiscuity.

We had behind one of our salons, a bar when I worked in Orange, and I worked there for 13 years.

It was absolutely horrible.

People defecated in the back.

People we found them peeing in the back, throwing up all the time, and we had to clean it up.

It was absolutely ridiculous.

And then the one night I stayed late, I and then I left.

Thank you so much.

Next speaker, please.

Mayor, excuse me, Mayor, council members.

Again, I'm Carrie Gorsage, and I serve as a trustee of the Ocean View School District Board.

Um, and I'm also a parent of children that I raised inside the city.

Um, and I do take my trustee position very, very seriously, um, and protection of the students of the Ocean View School District is my top priority.

Um, so I'd like to focus tonight on accountability and oversight in regard to the appeal that will come before you during the public hearing outlined in item 13.

One of the most troubling aspects of this process has been the lack of clarity regarding how future impacts will be measured and addressed during the planning commission hearings.

Significant questions were raised regarding service call data and how incidents were attributed to this establishment versus the surrounding area.

Those questions remain unresolved.

If the city approves this permit, the public deserves meaningful safeguards.

And I do want to remind you that you know, 600 feet.

I I heard all of these distances that are being thrown about, and what's what's acceptable?

But 600 feet isn't very far down an alley where children do travel, where families do travel.

And I'm asking you to really think about it.

If you if you and your children were that far away every single day, would you be willing to take that risk?

So the Ocean View School District has requested several reasonable conditions, including annual police reviews for the life of the permit, clearer standards for evaluating increases in service calls, improved lighting requirements, unobstructed visibility into the establishment, and reporting requirements related to drink spiking incidents, which we have heard happen.

These are not radical requests.

These are common sense accountability measures designed to protect patron patrons, neighboring businesses, law enforcement officers, nearby residents, and of course our students.

If the council believes this permit should move forward, then at minimum, these protections should be strengthened substantially.

The public should never be asked to simply trust that everything will work out.

This happens everywhere after all.

Good public policy requires measurable standards, ongoing oversight, and consequences when those standards are not met, and we do deserve that.

That is also what responsible government looks like.

Thank you.

Good evening, honorable mayor and council members.

My name's Gina Clayton Tarvin, and I serve as the president of the Ocean View School District Board of Trustees.

And I want to say first and foremost, shame on you, Don Kennedy, and shame on you Butch Twining.

Shame on you for downplaying the potential dangers to our children.

Shame on you.

I'm here tonight in strong support of the appeal put forward by Councilmember Chad Williams and in opposition to the expansion of the liquor license at Distractions Lounge.

Let's be honest about what is before us this evening.

This is not a restaurant.

Despite the language used in the staff reports, describing it as an eating and drinking establishment, there is no food service required or associated with this type of permit.

This is a semi-nude bar.

That's what the officer said.

We believe our HBPD.

The liquor licenses being sought are specifically designed for establishments that primarily serve alcohol, not meals.

The public deserves honesty and transparency when evaluating projects like this.

And what is equally troubling is that we are being asked to believe that increasing alcohol service at this location, already associated with police activity, public disturbances, and neighborhood complaints will somehow improve the conditions in the area.

Come on, that defies common sense.

Westmont Elementary School already faces a burden that no other school faces.

It's surrounded by multiple alcohol serving establishments operating under licenses intended specifically for bars, and no other school experiences this concentration of alcohol related businesses within such a close proximity.

And now we're being asked to make the situation worse with more alcohol, distilled spirits, in fact, more opportunities for crime, more opportunities for disorder.

This is not responsible planning.

What concerns me even more is the apparent effort to minimize you two, the scope of the problem.

During the planning commission process, the public heard references to numerous service calls occurring in the area, and only to see the number dramatically narrowed through the subjective determinations about which incidents could be directly attributed.

I see 73 here.

Stop saying it's only four, stop saying it's 28.

It's 73.

I don't care that it's 10 years.

It's 10 years too many.

Knock it off.

The community should not have to wonder whether they're receiving the full picture.

The city's municipal code requires you to find that this project will not be detrimental to the health, safety, welfare, and property values of the surrounding area.

So I respectfully submit to the record that the record before you does not support this finding.

And the fact that a project may generate sales tax, let me tell you, that's not enough in Huntington Beach.

The fact that this is located in a commercial center is also not enough.

And the fact that the applicant wants a more profitable business manner is not enough.

That sounds like a them problem, not a school district problem, although they're making it our problem.

Approve the appeal.

Thank you, next speaker.

Good evening.

My name is Peter Blood, a land use consultant representing the owner of Distractions Lounge.

Just to clarify the facts of the matter.

This is an existing business.

There has been a bar on this premises since the 60s.

This was one of the first strip centers built on Beach Boulevard.

The current owner purchased this bar in 2012.

The business was incorporated in 2019.

The business license is active and current and in good standing by all general measures of the city and the HBPD.

And by the way, HBPD is the impartial recorder and arbiter of facts.

They're the ones who determine whether or not there are enough problems.

I understand that some folks' level of tolerance for a problem related to a business might be zero, but that's not very realistic.

The situation is this.

We're not asking for an expansion of the use.

We're not asking for a change of the use.

We're not even changing hours or occupancy.

This CUP request has been approved twice already.

The zoning administrator looked at it, planning staff looked at it, the planning commission looked at it.

This is a land use discussion and a decision about a conditional use permit.

Beach Boulevard is the correct location for a bar.

There are bars up and down Beach Boulevard.

I happen to live the north end, but I know every couple blocks there's at least one.

There's type 42s, there's type 48s.

They are scattered all over the place.

What does that tell us?

That tells us that this is part of our society.

This is part of our fabric.

This is part of our existence as human beings.

The required findings for this project can be made and they should be made to allow the business owner to improve his competitive disadvantage with other type 48 establishments that are nearby.

The OVSD letter highlighted a number of them that are in existence, and they were you know concerned about locations and distances from schools, etc.

There are zero calls involving juveniles or minors that have been ever attributed to distractions lounge.

There are a lot of concerns.

I hear them, I understand.

I'm a parent, I've raised four kids.

I understand.

We want to protect our children, but we have to be realistic about what we're protecting them from.

There's a real world out there.

There are bars.

There are people that you need to pay attention to, there's people you need to stay away from.

They're all around us.

You have to pay attention.

You have to be vigilant.

As a parent, you have to be extra vigilant.

You're responsible for four, in my case, younger souls.

We can't make all of our decisions based on fears.

Can bad things happen?

Of course they can.

Do we hope that they don't?

Yes, we do.

Are we thankful when HBPDs?

Thank you, sir.

Sit around because we might have to have you come up back.

Go ahead, sir.

We have two yeses from planning professionals.

We respectfully request one more.

Please uphold this approval and deny the appeal.

Thank you, sir.

Alright, I'm gonna close the public hearing.

Council discussion.

I'll go first.

Alright.

Let's see here.

So I know we always want to focus on our commissioners as we should, because we appoint them as specialists in their said discipline.

And if you watch the planning commission meeting, like I did this past weekend as I always do my homework.

I thought every commissioner did a fantastic job.

I thought they asked every question you could ask.

I thought every answer was provided.

So I was just not sure why this was appealed.

Um I understand the Ocean View School District and Councilmember Williams uh working on this to appeal it.

But again, if you watch the planning commission meeting, every question was answered.

This school parcel is over 700 feet away, it's over half a mile of walking distance.

Uh Commissioner Clifford asked the school official if there was any incidents or reports ever from the school about distraction zones.

He said no, there wasn't, so zero.

Um I think if you look at that aerial, children aren't walking a pile to a state highway, beach boulevard, walking down another 600 feet, making it left into the elbow of a strip center, and walking by that door.

So I think they answer that question that the children weren't affected or impacted.

There was no calls as stated.

Um, the ABC 600 feet is a recommendation from schools, it's not a requirement.

Again, it's over 700 feet away.

It's the school properties on that western edge, as Protend Butch Twining said, that's leased to a senior facility.

Um, Commissioner Clifford brought up that Westmont, the children are five to ten years old.

They're released to their parents, they're not released on Beach Boulevard.

That was confirmed.

Um the existing business, I thought it was from the 80s, it's actually from the 60s, so it predates conditional use permit requirements.

And that's what the what the interesting thing is is that when it really comes down to it, this business has been here since the 60s without a CUP, but with this CUP process now for this new type 48.

There's additional conditions of approval that we can put onto the business that do not currently exist that provide more safeguards and oversight for our police.

And when you come down to it, I defer to our police department.

So probably the best in the country.

They've signed off on this.

And so I'm just gonna read you some of these conditions.

So if we were to approve the CUP one hours of operation, 12 p.m.

to 12 a.m., Sunday through Thursday, 12 p.m.

to two a.m.

Friday and Saturday.

The police department shall conduct a formal review of the business one year after approval of this CUP to verify compliance with all conditions of approval and performance standards.

Based on the findings of this review, the city may require corrective actions, impose additional conditions or initiate modification or revocation proceedings if warranted.

Performance standards for this CP shall be based on measurable increases in law enforcement, code enforcement, or emergency service activity reasonably attributable to the operation of the use.

An increase of 25% or more in calls for service to UI related incidents, nuisance violations, or similar enforcement activity over any 12-month period may result in modification or revocation of the CUP and permit.

The business is encouraged to provide prepackaged food or snacks for patron consumption as a measure to support responsible alcohol service and protect the health and safety of the public.

All areas of the alcohol business that are accessible to patrons shall be illuminated such that the appearance and conduct of all people in the alcohol business are visible from inside the alcohol business.

The front and rear parking lots and area of the premises shall be equipped with lighting of sufficient power to illuminate and make easily discernible the appearance and conduct of all persons on or about the area.

An employee of the alcohol business must monitor all areas where alcohol is served.

Alcoholic drinks shall not be included in the price of admission.

All alcohol uh all alcohol shall remain within alcohol business premises.

No alcoholic beverages shall be consumed on any property adjacent to the licensed premises under the control of the licensee.

Service of alcoholic beverage for consumption off site shall not be permitted.

There should be no requirement for patrons to purchase a minimum number of alcoholic drinks.

Games or contests or contests required or involving consumption of alcoholic beverages shall be prohibited.

No reduced price or promotions of alcoholic beverages shall be allowed after seven.

Last call for jinx drinks shall be no later than 15 minutes before closing.

Each individual patron shall only be served one standard single-sized alcoholic beverage at a time after midnight.

Consumption of alcoholic beverages by on-duty employees, including servers, bartenders, kitchen staff management, and supervisor personnel is not permitted.

Mandatory responsible beverage service training and certification shall be required for new employees within 60 days of being hired, and for existing employees every 12 months.

Training shall be provided by ABC or an ABC approved RBS trainer and records of training must be maintained on site for review.

All owners, employees, representatives, and agents must obey all federal, state, and local laws.

In addition, all conditions of the C UP, ABC control license, and any other any regulations, provisions, or restrictions prescribed by any agency with jurisdiction or their premises are required as part of the C B C UP to be followed.

No patrons shall be permitted to loiter within the vicinity of any entrances and exits at any time.

Loitering is prohibited on or around the premises or the area under the control of the licensee.

The establishment should employ a video surveillance security system with a minimum one-month video library recorded to a DVR or cloud-based system.

The camera's minimum requirement shall be clear, color, digital, and it'll be able to record in low light.

The business shall ensure all public areas, entrances, exits, parking areas to the front and adjacent to the business are covered by video surveillance.

Electronic copies of video must be made available to the Hunnings Beach Police Department within 48 hours of request.

Digital recording shall be made available for viewing on scene upon request by police personnel conducting investigations.

You are required to have someone able to operate the system on duty during all business hours.

There should be no exterior advertising or sign of any kind of type, including advertising directed exterior from within, promoting or indicating the availability of alcoholic beverages.

There should be no window coverings or advertisements that reduce the visibility inside of the premises.

Goes on, and then even at the end, prior to commencement or sale of uh alcohol sales service under type 40, the applicant shall complete improvements to the establishment's restroom facilities to include a new door and individual stall privacy uh partitions.

If current accessibility levels can be maintained, subject to community development department review prior to submit to the billing permits, zoning autonomy conditions or approval shall be printed verbatim on one of the first three pages of all the working drawing sets used for issuance of billing permits, architectural structural engineering, etc.

The list goes on.

So my point, and I appreciate you, you know, let me walk you through a little of these conditions is that these conditions don't currently exist, but they will if we approve this CUP.

A lot of the complaints tonight will be addressed by these conditions of approval that the plan that the zoning administrator and the planning commission approved, which I think we all agree should be in place.

They're not now.

The applicant has agreed to install them.

It's all on the agenda, it's very robust.

And I'll ask the chief of police, chief, based on the points that are brought up earlier with calls for service.

Is this are those level of calls like abnormal for an establishment like this in your opinion?

No.

Okay.

So it's not abnormal for the calls for service.

I understand they exist as council member Kenny said, they exist everywhere.

I think there's more calls for service at places at Pacific City than distractions lounge.

However, with this CUP, I trust our police department.

They went through all these conditions of approval.

There are more, I didn't even read them all.

And it would provide more oversight and regulation to protect this business, protect the residents.

There hasn't been any calls from the school for children being affected by distractions lounge.

And so I think this is the proper step to take to secure this establishment to protect the safety of the community and not be too big government nanny state picking winners and losers of what businesses can and cannot do.

Thank you for that, Mayor.

Um that list of conditions, and really the difficult thing about sitting in the seat is a lot of times opinion and rights either intersect or they don't.

So I've raised three incredible kids and been married for 32 years.

I've got very good morals and I love kids, but that doesn't mean I can sit up here and take my opinion or my moral compass and to let me direct policy decisions based on what are uh entitled rights to business owners, land use um definitions, question our uh HBPD and all these different things.

So a lot of times I may vote on something or against something that may go against what my personal judgment may be, but I wasn't elected to make personal decisions.

I was elected to make uh responsible decisions based on rights and conformity and you know uh safety checks over here in this case or whatever uh the overall picture is that's how I need to base my decision, not on what I like or don't like, as Commissioner Thina said, I don't even go to bars, but if I was to say I don't go to bars, so I'm gonna deny somebody the right to do something that's lawfully within their realm, that would be prejudicing my vote based on personal opinion.

I'm not gonna do that.

Unfortunately, sometimes it works in favor of how residents would hope I would uh vote, sometimes it doesn't, but I don't factor in the personal, hey, how's the wind blowing?

I have to make decisions that I think are valid and based on lawful uh exercising of rights.

So with that said, sometimes there's intersection of opinion and and my duty up here, and I have to make my decisions based on my duty, not my opinion.

Councilman Kent, I just ask you a quick question.

Is your understanding that this is, is your understanding that this is a discretionary permit approval, or that this is a question over as if they have a miss ministerial right?

No, there's probably discretion here, but you know, discretion has to have balance to it.

So discretion can't be based on my discretion is based on my opinion, because then becomes very prejudiced, and then I can use discretion almost in any uh situation.

So what I'm gonna look at, if our PD was hesitant, I would use discretion to start in uh favor of saying, I'm not sure it's a good idea.

If the uh if the if the right to have a CUP uh was uh not available, that would be an issue.

What I see here is that 30 you know, five minute list of uh conditions that are not in place right now actually put more protections in place for the residents than there have ever been.

So whether or not it's beer and wine or now spirits, um, these conditions have now framed that business into a behavioral pattern that if they don't conform to a gigantic moat of um uh conditions, they're gonna be in a world of hurt very quickly because I can guarantee our law enforcement will enforce the law, enforce those conditions, and if the business owner doesn't conform, they'll be out of business.

I believe part of what we're supposed to contemplate in our discretion is the effect that it will have on the community, the surrounding community.

I think without fail, virtually everyone that spoke from the podium, apart from the representative for distractions, expressed how this would have a detrimental negative impact, not only on elementary students, um, and we heard from the OVSD uh representatives, but also from the surrounding community.

I mean, we heard from a gentleman that literally lives about 60 feet away, and I wrote down he's talking about people kicking in his back wall.

There's a drunk guy trying to kick in a door at his neighbor's house, drunk people, you know, walk in on and off his property.

Um, you know, this is part of the discretion.

This isn't um a God given right, you know, that they have uh we're supposed to weigh these things.

Um go ahead.

Sorry.

Go ahead.

Well, I was gonna make the point too.

You know, one of the things that I appreciate that I've heard you say before is that which we condone, you know, we encourage.

And so there is no legal obligation to approve this.

This is something that's based off of our discretion.

And I I would appeal to your humanity, our humanity.

We've all stood on stages together at at churches.

I mean, look, look at the women that they have in there.

And there's nothing we can do to stop them from this, but do you think that this is a good mix with with hard liquor?

You know, what what in the conditions when one of the conditions is they're going to be encouraged to provide snacks?

Like that, what how is that gonna solve any issues with girls that are being offered roofies?

You know, we uh a condition.

I think the term roofy based on what that lady said, people are throwing alcohol up on the roof.

You can't hold a bar accountable because their patrons are saying, hey, you want to get roofied.

I mean, that's a little bit of a stretch.

But to address one thing, if if councilman Williams, if councilman Williams, uh if we were to uh cast our votes based on the voice of public appeal, we would have never fought high density because the only people that show up here against our fight against high density are the people that tell us vote, vote, vote, vote.

You know, we've been hearing that for years.

The people that show up here are the ones that we typically uh are are the ones that uh have been stating their opinions completely contrasting to how we voted on many other issues, including high density.

We've sat here for years and been railed on by people, yet the people that like what we do don't show up, don't express a voice.

So just because there's a cup more voices here uh against it than in favor, doesn't mean that other people out there are saying, hey, I don't necessarily like the bar or this or that, but you know, you have to uh you know use your judgment in regards to what's what's lawful, what's allowable, what protections are in place.

So I mean, that's the dynamic of sitting up here.

The beautiful thing is, I mean, it's a seven-person body up here, so um that's why we take votes.

And I think what's really eerie about the roofie thing is going to that call uh the on number 28 on that bake list, rape report party states the incident occurred on 1107.

She reports consuming only three beers but blacked out, leading her to believe that she may have been drugged or roofied.

Kind of ironic that you know there would be some men that would approach a woman just this last Saturday and ask her, do you want to get roofied?

And of course, when they go, What are you talking about?

It's like, oh no, take a shot, we throw it on the roof.

I don't know, a little suspect.

Um, I'm concerned about the types of people that this attracts.

Also, another one of the conditions besides providing snacks to people in hopes that that's gonna solve distilled spirits, uh, the intensity.

Uh, another condition that was added, and and uh Mayor, you brought this up this condition of uh improvement on the bathrooms.

Do you remember how that condition was was brought about or what who who brought that up at the planning commission and why?

So what was the question?

Uh the condition that you had mentioned about the improvement of bathrooms, you said you watched the planning commission.

Do you recall the the context of why they put that down as a condition?

Yeah, and Palmer added that as a condition.

She had been she had been in the facility and she thought the bathrooms need to be upgraded, and she asked the applicant, and he said, Yeah, we can agree to do that.

But do you remember why?

She stated why she believed that bathrooms need to be improved to solve a certain problem.

I don't recall, I just know the conditions.

Because she said she went to the place and people are peeing all over the place in public.

So this is supposed to be.

So again, this is yeah, but this would be a good condition to add.

And one important one that I didn't read that could address the neighbor with the avocado tree is part Z says there'll be sure be a minimum of two identical identifiable security employees on the premises every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 8 p.m.

to 2 30 a.m.

to control crowds, monitor customers, and ensure doors remain closed.

That condition does not currently exist on the business.

I just think the types of people that are peeing in public at distractions aren't going, gee golly, if the bathrooms were just a little bit nicer, I think I would have used it, but instead I'm gonna go outside over here.

And so it's these conditions that are brought up.

I mean, these conditions are hardly conditions really at all.

Um I don't believe it's enough.

And so, I mean, for the sake of, you know, the surrounding community, I mean, it this is more than just read the room, like read this room.

You guys, I think you might be missing it if you're not able to like really read the room, like the whole community is opposed to this, and we haven't heard anyone speak in support of it.

It's not just the people that are actually inside this room right now.

It's the types of people that voted us into these seats with certain expectations.

Yeah, I I I'm not gonna allow you to make a statement for the 43,000 people that voted for me and the 50,000 people that voted for you unless you've heard from all of them.

I have not heard from 43,000 people.

Um, so you know, those statements, as much as I appreciate you making that.

I mean, it's a difficult decision.

For example, you know, Councilman Gruel, he's got a hard liquor license, and Marley's preschool is 900 feet away.

What I mean, he's serving hard liquor.

That's a that's that's the mothers is right there.

They don't have half naked women running around, doesn't matter, it's hard liquor.

So, so they have it unless the police officer is gonna tell us that those girls are unlawfully dressed.

Do I like that?

Would I have I have a daughter?

Would I let her dress like that?

So I certainly wouldn't condone it.

Um, but if if unless the police officer goes in there and says, You can't dress like that, who am I to tell them how to dress?

I won't go there.

I wouldn't take my friends there, and I wouldn't let my daughter go there.

But that's that's how I would parent.

If she went there, or my sons did, that would be their choice.

They're adults.

But unless you're gonna give them the green life for home.

So if Chief Para can tell us that they're not allowed to dress like that, who are you, me or anybody else here to say you can't dress like that?

I'm not in a position to say that I'm not trying to say that, but I am in a position to say I'm not gonna be the one that supplies the alcohol, the hard liquor.

You're in a seat that will determine whether or not they're allowed to consume on site hard liquor mixed with that type of attire.

Well, let's call the question, see how the vote.

No, I'm I still got something to say, especially because you brought me up.

So the diff.

Yeah, there's there is alcohol.

However, I will say this.

With the type 47, it's mandatory that you have food because soup food absorbs the alcohol specifically so that people don't drink alcohol on an empty stuff.

That's why they're giving snacks there.

Yeah, I don't think a bag of pistachios or hot mics are gonna really absorb the alcohol.

Number one.

Number two, I think it's also important.

Isn't a bartender held responsible for how they serve?

And it's they overserve, then they're liable as well, or the bar owners.

So there is that consequence.

Go ahead.

They they are, but I will say to that point, a bartender is just bringing my own real world experience into this is that based on the RBC, which is the the responsible beverage control that every single bartender has to go through.

One of the specific points made is that bartender's not allowed to drink with the patrons, and there is documented evidence in which that is occurring right now, number one.

Number two, you're also not allowed to drink outside of the establishment.

I think that that's you go online, you can see that happening.

So the point that the baseline that, oh, well, they're allowed to do this right now, but then moving forward, we're gonna put more conditions in place based on the conditions that are already in place by the law.

We know that there's violations based on these photos as to the definition of what a bikini bar is.

Number one, violations in regards to people drinking outside of the establishment.

So if we're saying oh well by putting these conditions in place it's gonna make it better it's already not good to begin with so I think that that's an important baseline that we need to measure and then as to the discretionary piece that Chad brought up that we're all looking at this through the prism I I don't have 43 I wasn't even voted into this seat so I don't have people votes that I'm representing up here I look at every single decision through the prism of does this improve the quality of the community especially the surrounding community so that I ask everybody right now who's up on this dias can you tell me how this is better for our community I would ask you the same question when when you voted no on high density buildings back to that question is that mayor one mayor one second one let me ask you okay so so if somebody walks off your balcony with a with a cocktail in their hand is that your fault point of order he asked a a question okay what's the question again ask me the question again so if somebody does walk off yes that technically that is our okay so I know before when we were talking about the liquor license for the sports complex uh before apparently you were gonna vote for it because you told me not necessarily how you're gonna vote you point of order are we talking about the sports right now are we going to be talking about the ABC was the biggest point of order point of order I'm addressing this question are we talking about forget about it you're right ABC is ultimately the default greatest police entity when it comes to alcohol so if the ABC says that this bar after our police department says you've met the whatever their definition of safety is and the ABC comes in and grants that you told me personally they're a great enforcement mechanism is that a true or false statement ABC is the ultimate enforcement and you said they're a very stricting strict policing force ABC is the ultimate enforcement mechanism however keep in mind that the way ABC doesn't go around every single day enforcing and policing what they do is they take complaints they look towards you know kind of suspected violations and then they follow up through their enforcement measures a lot of those are going to slip through the cracks but we as community members we can obviously do our own investigation and by virtue of just the simple surface level investigation here by some of the community members there's obvious violations to begin with if ABC took hold of that they might even pull their existing liquor license directly to your question too I spoke with ABC about uh the sports complex and you'd be surprised their decision making process they actually will end up acquiescing to whatever the municipality ended up ruling on in fact uh the woman uh she'd been doing this for about 20 years and she said never in my 20 years have I seen something quite as absurd as this because the tot lot was only eight feet away from now we're talking about sports he had that question he wanted to know but I I rephrase the question I'm genuinely asking this this isn't rhetorical can anyone define with metrics how this is good for the community how this is better what are the positives when I look at this as a cost benefit analysis what's the what's the cost and what's the benefit what's specifically is the benefit here.

The benefit is by right by land use we're not denying a patron the right to get as long as he conforms or she conforms with all the regulatory bodies our law enforcement uh best of the best why would why do we have the right to deny it if if they've conformed to everything and if they don't conform to the conditions then they will be shut down the bottom line is the cost benefit is it's not always about cost benefit it's also about what is right by the law by the regulations and by the standards by the land use and what is opinion.

So I'm basing it right now not on opinion what is approved by HBPD Planning Commission zoning administrator land use and the entitled benefit to the bar owner.

So I so I I look at once again.

I I still didn't hear a tangible benefit there.

What I I said this isn't based always on cost benefit.

This is based on what kid's please.

I'll go, I'll take a stab.

Take a stab.

It is not, you know, I don't go to the I don't go to it.

I've driven past her hundreds of times going up and down beach.

I used to shop at the pavilions.

I didn't even know the damn place was there.

I I mean and I went and scouted it out this morning.

I think the uh uh the accusation that kids are threatened by it is disingenuous.

I don't I scouted it.

I looked and I don't know how it'd have to be a rogue kid that broke free.

Uh once again, go by there.

But the benefit is the customers.

There is a customer base.

Whether we agree with it or not, there are customers, and you know what's gonna be the the determining factor if the bar succeeds or not.

If there isn't a cost benefit, if there isn't a benefit to the community, there won't be customers.

So the benefit, so you want to do this for the existing customers who pee on the floor and get fights.

No, see that's an assumption.

That's disingenuous too.

But because there's a there's a group of people there that like those kind of bars, they want to go in there, they have a common, they want to have some beers or whatever drink.

But they can do that right now.

But that doesn't mean you're hearing from people that say they're going pissing back in the back, and I don't doubt it.

It's a bar, but that's where the CUP comes in strength because now it's inform more enforceable.

And it's I don't agree with it.

I don't want I wouldn't want people pissing in the back of my on the back wall, which is that wall is about nine feet.

I was kind of blown away how how tall that back wall along that alley is to those houses.

It's a very big wall, which is very unusual, but which is good.

I mean, I hell, I think it's great for those people.

But I guess that I would want to live there, but the people, the patrons, they see a comfort in going there.

You're asking for a ca a benefit.

But they already have that is my point by in intensifying the alcohol use, which goes back to the land use piece of this, right?

We're intensifying the alcohol use, and we have the discretion to determine if that's a benefit to the community.

So they can they can drink right now as it is, they can take you know, roof a lotas, whatever it is.

But the question becomes does this, where where's the I still don't understand that?

Well, if you want to add something to your menu, is there how do you know it's a business enhancement, and this guy wants to enhance his business.

He sees a source of maybe it's a business decision on the the owner's d uh part.

Like I say, I'm not gonna be going in there.

It's a business.

Some these guys they're a customer base that do.

And if it's not good, it'll people won't go and the business will fail.

Buy.

I mean, that's the way capitalism is.

What's the case?

I'm not gonna be selfish.

They used to sell cigarettes at gas stations.

Now there's these smoke and vape shops.

I see zero benefit in those things.

So am I gonna go out on a mission and shut them all down?

No, I can't.

If somebody comes before me, you know, now we have to keep you we we put another condition, it has to be a thousand feet apart.

I don't like those things, I see zero benefit.

What's the cost benefit of those?

Well, because I've never seen a rape case specifically tied back to a cigarette.

Okay.

I think the rape took place if it did at an apartment.

Two rapes that where they started drinking at the establishment.

When you mix alcohol and half-naked ladies, that's like oil and vinegar.

Those are just certain principles in life that you know things that don't mix, and that's clearly one of them.

Yes, okay.

So let's call the vote.

Can I do a quick point of order?

I just wanted to ask the city attorney a clarifying question.

So this is a this is a discretionary conditional, it's condition based off of conditions, a discretionary conditional use permit, not something by right.

I keep hearing councilman Kennedy say it's theirs by right.

Is it theirs by right?

Correct.

Like with any any conditional use permit, you can deny it or approve it, but there have to be findings based on the conditions that are uh present on the business.

So again, it's it's not a ministerial right to obtain a C UP.

Thank you.

All right.

Um, you know, we heard a lot of remarks in terms of what type of impact this might have on the students of OVSD, and I understand that we have representatives from OVSD here and they sent us a letter.

I would like to give them an opportunity to maybe go over the letter that they had sent the public hearings.

Yeah, it's closed.

Uh yeah, I guess it would just be the same as there being a representative on one side for the applicant.

We have representatives uh from OVSD that initially uh wanted this appeal to take place.

So would it would it be okay if we have them come down and just discuss this letter?

Public comments closed.

This wouldn't be for public comment again.

Yeah, they already spoke.

Yeah.

Okay, point of order, mayor.

Just as you afforded the representative of the applicant an opportunity to you see you asked them to stick around in case we want to discuss more.

I've got some questions for the representatives of OVSD.

Did you not uh tell this gentleman to stick around?

If you have the letter, your elected official, you appealed it.

You can bring up those issues.

I don't public hearings closed, comments are closed.

They have the applicant here.

They're not the applicant, you're the opponent.

So go for it.

Okay.

That's fine.

Uh I thought we could streamline things a little bit more by having them come up.

That's all right.

Let's go ahead and pull this letter up and read it for the benefit of the public.

All right.

So it says to the Honorable Mayor and City Council members, Ocean View School District requests the city council uphold the appeal and deny conditional use permit 25027.

OVSD is concerned that the proposed intensification of the alcohol beverage control ABC license from type 42 license to type 48 license for distractions, lounge bikini bar located at gives the address, uh, will be detrimental to OVSD's property in the surrounding area by exasper exasperbating the existing high crime rate and police service calls.

Their premises are located within 600 feet of Ocean View School District's Westmont Elementary School.

I think that the property owners at OVSD would know better than you know, maybe some council members that have been pontificating, you know, how far away it is.

So there you have it.

It's it's 600 feet from their property line to property line.

Uh the Westmont Elementary School property and playgrounds extend to the intersection of Beach Boulevard and Hyle Avenue.

That's their property in California.

ABC may deny new retail licenses for establishments within 600 feet of a school, public playground, or nonprofit youth facility.

Uh, with proximity alone.

Uh while proximity alone isn't an automatic denial, licenses are often refused if the business is deemed to negatively impact the welfare and morals of the area.

If we could scroll down, just trying to save some time here.

I don't I don't want to try and go line by line for everybody here, but um, let's go down to page three.

It makes this point, kind of shows how unique this situation is surrounding the elementary school.

On page three, you're gonna go down a little bit more, it'll give a page three heading.

Yeah, there you go.

It says there are only seven, so listen, guys, there's only seven ABC type 42 and nine ABC type 48s in the city.

All right.

This type of ABC license is for bars, taverns, and nightclubs, and does not require the service of food.

That's why in the conditions, the police can merely suggest providing snacks.

They can't actually make it a condition that they have to provide snacks.

So it doesn't require the service of food.

The following table indicates the distance of bars to schools.

And so you see this table here, and it goes over the names of businesses and the distance from the school.

If you look at Westmont Elementary, what is really unique about this elementary school is the proximity of bars, they are closer to Westmont Elementary than anything else you see on this table.

That first one's within 875 feet.

The second one within 565 feet, that's the distractions lounge.

Uh the next one, Shanghai, 510 feet.

And so just going into the text underneath that table, I'll read it says the table shows that only Westmont Elementary School is exposed to the detrimental cumulative impact of three bars, Shanghai and Distractions Lounge are within 600 feet of the school.

Listen, nowhere else in the area are schools exposed to bars around, sorry, nowhere else in the area are schools exposed to bars around the school.

The intensification of ABC license exasperbates this.

The numerous police service calls to the era indicate there is an existing problem.

We read through, we looked at 73 of them.

We perused through.

The staff reports for distractions lounges application states this is an existing eating and drinking establishment, but this is misinformation.

Used to twist the true character of the bikini bars.

We know it is not uh an eating establishment uh whatsoever.

And so going on the ABC type 42 and 48 do not require the service of food, even the sales of packaged food.

The proposed condition of approval, condition two D, and there it is in bold, it merely encourages, just encourages the business to provide pre-packaged food or snacks for consumption as a measure to support responsible alcohol services to protect the health and safety of the public.

Um let's just kind of get down to their their final, go down to the the last page.

I'll just read whatever their their closing um remarks are here.

It's unfortunate we can't have them come up and just kind of speak a little bit on behalf of their own uh letter.

But uh the city inspector granted a certificate of use of occupancy for R3, R31, and U occupancies.

U occupancy is for a utility and miscellaneous occupancy, our occupancies are for residential bars and taverns are assembly group A2.

This appears to be misdirection as to the true character of the land use when the applicant filed for a use and occupancy permit.

We were unable to find a Huntington Beach business license for a distraction lounge.

We also were unable to find a business entity on the California Secretary of State portal.

The applicant's representative stated during the planning commission hearing that the owner of distractions lounge recently incorporated the business after operating the business as a sole proprietorship.

Possibly the business is incorporated in other state, but that would be on the business license.

The condition of approval should be added, requiring the applicant to obtain a business license and obtain an appropriate certificate of use and occupancy that reflects the land use and complete area of occupancy.

Um VSD requests that the city approve the appeal and denied the approval of conditional use permit to intensify.

And so I'll just kind of wrap things up completely here, guys, at least on my part, you know.

I've gotten to spend a good amount of time with you know many of you guys, especially my my uh my campaign compatriots, you know, HB3.

And I think I I think I I know you guys, and I've gotten a good sense of like where you're at.

We have to remember that right now, this decision is in our hands.

This is not something by right, it's discretionary.

We're not gonna change the fact that there's a certain attire that takes place in inside of distractions.

That's not what's on the table tonight.

But what's on the table is whether or not we are going to put our name on it and push forth the approval of a type 48 liquor license where we approve hard alcohol in a location like this.

I don't think it's a good mix, guys.

I really don't.

Like this is not a good move.

I just don't think it is.

And so I would like to uh make a motion to deny conditional use permit number 25027 based upon the detrimental impact to the community and the students of Westmont Elementary.

Second.

Call the question.

Councilman Gruel.

Yes.

Councilman Kennedy.

No.

Mayor Pro Tem Twine.

No.

Mayor McKeon?

No.

Councilman Burns?

Nope.

Councilman Williams.

Yes.

All right, before I make my motion, I'll just say it's not our job up here to impose our morality onto the city.

We live in a free market capitalist society based on our nation of laws and a business environment that sets out those guidelines and laws to encourage the free markets who come here.

This business has been here from the 60s.

There's rules and regulations and laws in order.

I defer to our police department to validate those public safety concerns.

When you keep moving the goalposts and having the government pick winners and losers, you dissuade the private sector from coming into our city to invest.

This owner obviously wants to invest to enhance his business.

There's a litany of conditions of approval I've read to make his business better to increase the safety for the community.

And so that's where I defer to is that there's land use as Councilmember Kennedy touched on.

There's a process for them to get their CUP, which would have led here, and then you defer to your police department to verify the conditions will make it safer.

There's not an issue.

So as such, I like to make a motion for the recommended action to find the proposed project category categorically exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act, pursuing to section 15301 class one and approved conditional use permit number 25-027 with suggested findings and conditions of approval attachment number one.

Do you guys want to make any any further conditions on what, like, for instance, maybe not let them serve Howard Alcohol during school hours?

Second.

Motions moved and seconded.

Please call the question.

Councilman Gruel.

No.

Councilman Kennedy?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Twenty?

Yes.

Mayor McKeon.

Yes.

Councilman Burns?

Aye.

Councilman Williams.

No.

Motion passes.

Four two one.

All right.

Next up, we have public hearing 26-482 adopt resolution number 2026-25 to approve general plan amendment number 21-003 housing element update.

Does anyone have any ex parte communications to disclose?

Madam Clerk, do we have any supplementary communications for this item?

Yes, Mayor, for public hearing item number 14, four emails received two comment letters from the Kennedy Commission, Orange County United Way Letter, update Table B 14, adequate sites to accommodate the regional housing needs assessment arena and PowerPoint presentation received from Director of Community Development, Jennifer Villa Senior regarding adoption of resolution number 2026-25 to approve general plan amendment number 21-003 2021 through 2029 housing element update.

Staff, please introduce the report.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'll give the presentation.

So uh the beginning of the presentation, we'll I'll kind of walk through um how we ended up here today.

Uh so uh the housing element planning period is from 2021 through 2029.

It's actually October 21 through 29.

Um we presented a housing element with the EIR to the city council, and um after not adopting the state of California sued the city regarding the housing element.

Essentially, what ensued for the next almost three years was a lot of litigation.

During that time, the Kennedy Commission intervened in the litigation as well, and ultimately in September of 2025, the Court of Appeal issued an opinion in the um in the case, which decided many of the contested litigation points, including the applicable applicability of state housing laws to charter cities.

Um the city did take this all the way to the California Supreme Court and requested that the Supreme Court overturn the Court of Appeals decision, however, uh in December of last year, the California Supreme Court declined review of the case.

That brings us to right before the holidays last year.

The superior court ordered the city to adopt a substantially compliant housing element within a hundred and twenty days of the order, and then subsequent to that adopt the zoning implementation actions within 120 days of the housing element adoption.

Uh upon receiving that order, city staff submitted uh the March 2023 substantially compliant draft housing element.

So prior to March of 23, the city had gone through the process to prepare a draft housing element, submitted it to HCD, and they had determined that it met housing element law and was essentially what we call substantially compliant.

Um that was submitted to HCD in January of this year, and HCD 45 later's provided comments requesting certain revisions to the housing element.

Uh staff worked on those revisions and posted uh the a revised housing element on May 14th and May 21 in accordance with state law that requires a seven-day public notification period.

Uh, in conjunction with the posting on the website, uh the staff did send uh notice to our interested parties list, which is about 170 or so interested parties.

The deadline for court compliance was March, sorry, May 28th last week.

On May 14th, the court ruled to impose financial penalties on the city, which up until that point throughout the course of litigation that had not occurred.

The court ordered 10,000 monthly starting in January 2025 through May of 2026 and starting in June of 2026, those penalties go up to $50,000 a month.

And that would stay in effect until the city adopts a substantially compliant housing element.

In addition, the court could impose an additional 100,000 a month starting in July.

That's what the attorney general is seeking.

And the penalties that the city is ordered to pay go into a trust to provide affordable housing in the state of California.

Further, if the city remains out of compliance after three months, the court may multiply the penalties by a factor of three, and if the city remains in compliance for six months after the court order, the court may multiply those penalties by a factor of six.

Additionally, the state law sets out that if noncompliance still occurs after six months, the court could appoint a receiver to bring the city's housing element into compliance, and effectively what that means is the receiver would remove the control over adoption of the housing element and the zoning implementation actions and put it in the hands of the receiver.

So that brings us to where we are today.

As I mentioned, we got a letter in March of 26 from HCD.

Our starting point in submitting the housing element was a substantially compliant housing element, but simply HCD wanted to see revisions essentially because of the passage of time, and so they outlined essentially four main revisions or comments that they wanted to see the city address in its housing element, and that's what we uh worked on in May and posted to the city's website.

The first was related to the site's inventory.

Um there were two appellate cases that concluded late last year.

One sought review by the Supreme Court, which was denied in February, and as a result, HCD considers the matter settled, and it will change the way many cities implement their RENA strategy.

As well, they required a minimum density.

So as a result, the city retooled its arena strategy program and is proposing a new program that would implement an affordable housing focus area, which would be a zoning designation rather than an overlay.

As a result of that, we did remove four sites that were no longer available.

One is the Frontier Industrial Yard, as well as the Golden West College sites.

That doesn't necessarily mean Golden West College couldn't do an affordable housing or a student housing project, but because of the appellate cases where we can't use an overlay, we cannot rezone Golden West College to residential.

So we removed those from our site's inventory and we removed it from our arena table that shows what our capacity is.

In addition, we added the reliable lumber yard back into the site's inventory.

It was initially in the site's inventory in our in an earlier version of the housing element.

So we've added it back in, and that's included in your late communication package.

The other piece to the site's inventory that HCD asked the city to look at was to go back and make sure that the conditions for which we provided substantial evidence regarding our site's inventory was still held up.

That includes, you know, the development scenarios that occur, market conditions, trends, past performance, on non vacant sites.

And so we did that analysis as provided in the revised housing element.

The next thing that the HCD asked for was for us to update our emergency shelter language, which was enacted by AB 2339 in January of 2023.

We had previously provided an analysis in the housing element that was sufficient for HCD, so it was a bit surprising to get this comment, but we did provide some clarifying language to update what we had already had in the housing element, and we believe it's sufficient.

We also received a public comment on this analysis from an advocate group, and we clarified the language as well to account for the project home key project.

Another request or comment of HCD was related to measure U, which is a city charter amendment, it's city charter section 807, which was passed by the electorate in 2024.

That's a new, that was a new charter amendment that wasn't in our previous housing element.

So HCD asked us to address it and provide a constraints analysis, which is in the housing element.

So we updated all of the timelines.

It reflects the site's inventory changes, our RENA table, our pipeline projects and RENA status is now current as of May of 2026, and we added the affordable housing focus area to the programs.

So just backing up on uh what the housing element update is.

There's essentially two components to it.

One is the housing element, which is the policy document that is before you tonight.

It's a planning document that is a mandated element of the general plan.

There's essentially seven mandated elements of the general plan.

Most of them are on like a 20-year update cycle.

The housing element is on an eight-year update cycle.

The other part of the housing element update is the implementation actions, which is essentially the rezoning implementation, the affordable housing focus areas, and the rezoning to accommodate the RENA.

That's not happening now.

That would have to happen after the city council adopts this substantially compliant housing element.

And then one other thing that I usually like to point out with the housing element is this doesn't this doesn't allow for development and it doesn't propose development.

There's no construction associated with this housing element update.

So very quickly, I'll go through what the housing element contacts are, which is straight from the housing element law.

You have to provide a community profile which gives uh a snapshot of what your community looks like, what your target populations look like, uh, what your housing stock looks like, and you put all of that into your housing element to determine what you where your needs are.

Then the next section of your housing element is related to an evaluation of constraints and resources for the provision of housing.

So the constraints would be governmental constraints such as permit fees, entitlement process, and non-governmental constraints such as financing and market conditions.

So we're required to evaluate those constraints, identify them, and then also identify resources and programs to mitigate those constraints.

Then lastly, you have your housing plan, which identifies your housing goals for the city, and also your quantified objectives and the policies associated with those goals.

One of the probably biggest pieces, or probably what people most know the housing element for, is goal number two, which is provide adequate sites to accommodate the projected housing unit needs at all income levels identified by the RENA.

So the RENA is the regional housing need allocation.

It's first determined by a regional determination, which is done by HCD.

They give SCAG, which is the Southern California Association of Governments, they'll give SCAG the number that SCAG region must accommodate, and then SCAG allocates that number, determining through a methodology what the need is for each individual jurisdiction.

There's 197 jurisdictions in the SCAG region.

So for the 2021 2029 planning period, Huntington Beaches RENA is 13,368 units, and that's broken down by income level.

About 44% of the city's RENA is in the very low and low income categories, about 17% in the moderate income categories, and the remainder is in the above moderate or what we consider market rate.

It looks a little different than it did in March of 2023, primarily because of two things.

One, we've uh the city has built a lot of, or not the city, but development has occurred in the city of Huntington Beach during the time that the planning period has been occurring.

So when you take all the permits that have been issued through uh December of 2025, the middle income housing conversion that we can count, which is based on state law, as well as pending projects, which has been updated to show a current snapshot of what our pending applications are.

We have met about 4,300 units.

We have just a little bit over 9,000 RENA units remaining.

And so the plan to accommodate the remaining 9,000 RENA units would be through ADUs, which was identified in the previous version of the housing element, additional project home key projects.

We've had we had one that uh is fully implemented, and we've identified two additional sites, and then our available rezoning sites capacity, and there is a substantial buffer in the sites capacity identified in the arena that we would we could utilize to do the rezoning program at a later date.

So with that, we have more than enough capacity to accommodate the arena in compliance with housing element law.

So in order to determine which sites qualify to accommodate the RENA, there were several laws that came into effect for the sixth cycle, and they're related to when you identify non-vacant sites to accommodate your more than 50% of your lower income RENA, which, you know, for a city like Huntington Beach and most cities in Orange County that are built out, you have to most of the time rely on non-vacant sites or the redevelopment of non vacant sites to accommodate your arena.

And it requires a detailed site analysis based on substantial evidence.

And so we've done that.

We did that back in 2023, and we've reconfirmed that for this version of the housing element that's before you tonight.

The other piece for the site's criteria that's new for housing element law is um basically affirmatively furthering fair housing.

So that law essentially says your sites have to be in higher resource areas where you have equity and access to um health care, grocery stores community services and resources so the site's inventory meets the um substantial evidence burden in a valuation against both of these um laws and the sites criteria um and then the other piece of site capacity we do show more sites than we need to actually rezone in the housing element to account for uh the no net loss law which was um enacted in 2017 and in terms of where our site capacity is that remains relatively unchanged the majority of our sites can be accommodated in the beach and edinger corridor specific plan which actually already has residential zoning in place so the affordable housing focus area will um will comply with the standards that are required such as a minimum density requirement and we don't necessarily need to rezone those areas we just need to meet the state law in terms of uh what's allowed or what the criteria and development standards are in those focus areas and then if we needed to um if we needed to rezone other areas we've identified areas on uh within the gothard corridor and holly sea cliff industry both industrial areas um that that could be utilized as well so lastly I will just point out that the housing element identifies nine housing element goals and with that there are 39 programs um that are identified to implement the goals which again meet uh meets housing element law and that in total brings our housing element to uh where we would recommend that this is a substantially compliant housing element that the city could adopt tonight one last piece is that um the the seque finding for the housing uh for the city council is related to government code section six five seven five nine which is a government code section which essentially exempts the CEQA process when uh when you're complying with a court order to adopt the housing element and with that um I will conclude the presentation and recommend that the council make the CEQA finding as well as adopt general plan amendment to adopt the housing element update thank you jennifer council members do you have any questions on the report itself no okay are we gonna open the public hearing Madam Clerk do we have anyone signed up to speak yes mayor we have eight speakers signed up when your name is called each speaker's allotted three minutes when your name is called please approach use both podiums state your name and organization for the record Linda Rose Pat Goodman Daniel Sasi Brian Thenis Diane Bentley Eric Evans Caesar Corvalis Karen Carroll.

Go ahead sir good evening again uh mayor McKeon Council members uh my name is uh Brian Thenis uh planning commissioner uh city council uh candidate um I I do agree I believe we do need to adopt the uh um housing element I think this is um yeah I I thank you the city council for putting up a fight you bought us a lot of time um stalled a lot of unnecessary uh just ridiculous development these Senate bills are crazy um they take away a lot of zoning guidelines that we've established over the years on parking, on uh setbacks, um open space, um, we the the complying with these Senate bills is really the problem.

And I believe, and I believe that complying with this housing element is going to place a massive burden on our infrastructure.

When you look at some of our uh master plan for sewer uh storm drain studies, we have a lot of deficient structures, and there's really no way that that the state is going to help pay for uh implementing these uh uh new homes that are gonna eventually um really tax our infrastructure.

Our original infrastructure wasn't designed to handle this type of this many homes.

It wasn't originally planned for it.

We can't rebuild our streets, you know, we can't make them wider without condemning other properties.

Um I also disagree that um you know we we do have a problem.

The uh letter from the Department of Community Development and uh uh housing and community development uh says that we have to deal with measure U, which is uh um we've as citizens we voted on measure U, which prohibits City Council from adopting zoning changes without voter approval, and um that CEQA and and exempting us from CEQA takes the uh the community participation completely out.

And the legislative intent is to every citizen has a uh responsibility to contribute in the uh preservation and enhancement of the environment around us.

And then when you look at the uh the policies of the EIR, these Senate bills are in violation of that policy of the EIR itself because it says the ER process will enable the public to determine the environmental and economic values of their elected and appointed officials come election day should a majority of voters disagree.

In other words, we can't the people making these rules are coming from Sacramento, state senators from Sacramento that we can't vote out of office.

We can vote for our city council members, but they've put that responsibility on people we can't vote for.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening, Mayor McKeon and Council members.

I urge you to vote to adopt a six-cycle housing element and bring Huntington Beach into compliance with California housing law.

The housing element requirement has been part of state law since 1967 when it was signed by Governor Ronald Reagan.

Its purpose is simple.

Every community should plan for meeting the housing needs of its residents.

As the fourth largest city in Orange County by population and fifth in land area, Huntington Beach has an important role to play in addressing the regional housing needs.

The Superior Court has now stepped in to compel a city to adopt compliant housing element.

Continuing to resist compliance puts the city at risk of significant consequences, including fines, uh starting in June of $50,000 per month, and the appointment of a receiver to oversee planning and zoning decisions.

That would mean surrendering local control over land use decisions, something we all oppose.

Adopting the housing element is not just about avoiding penalties, it is also an economic opportunity.

New housing supports local businesses, generates property tax revenue, and helps create a stronger local economy.

Combined with efforts to attract and retain businesses, it can help expand employment opportunities and strengthen the city's financial future.

Compliance would also restore Huntington Beach's eligibility for uh SB2 planning grants and other state funding opportunities that the city has been unable to access in recent years.

Um I want to note that four members of the council were not present when this lawsuit was initiated.

Uh this is the council, this council has an opportunity to hit the reset button, protect local control, avoid constellate penalties, and uh position Huntington Beach for future success.

Please vote to adopt the housing element.

Thank you.

Good evening, City Council.

Uh, my name is Daniel Sassey.

I'm a longtime resident of Huntington Beach, but I'm also outside counsel for Kennedy Commission.

Um, so I have had the uh pleasure of working with your council.

Uh Ms.

Trailer over here, who's uh quite good, but also quite expensive.

And as a resident of uh Huntington Beach, I'm paying for that.

Also, as a resident of Huntington Beach, we've now wasted millions of dollars contesting uh housing requirements, which uh every other jurisdiction in California has managed to get to.

Um, 96% of them are compliant, and Huntington Beach is the only one that has been fined by the state or by uh the courts and has a fine for not adopting a housing commission.

You have a great staff in front of you, and they have worked hard to put together a plan, but that plan is not yet compliant.

Um we have been quite clear uh at the Kennedy Commission in the state, and HCD has been quite clear with you that your plan is not yet compliant.

Um, so applaud that you've made it this far after being dragged here over three years and you're costing the residents of Huntington Beach millions of dollars to get to where everybody else is, but you actually do need to do more.

Um, and to do more, you need to pay attention to what HCD said to you in a letter and and listed out 16 requirements.

You heard a few of those tonight, and there is an effort to comply with some of those, but you are far from being compliant at this point in time, and there are more things that the city is gonna have to do to have a compliant housing um element in place, uh, and really, frankly, to just catch up with where the rest of the state is.

Um, starters, uh, the full um a new draft of the uh housing element was not posted um until the 28th.

So there has not been full seven days to um comply and have public comment on the draft currently.

Um the inventory of sites and the current draft housing element is incomplete.

Um it the site inventory that has been updated to reflect any changes from uh March 2023, and there are changes.

You heard about that from your staff do not fully include all site availability for development within the planning period and sustainability of non vacant sites that has not fully been done yet.

Your staff is is working on that, and it seems to be underway.

If it's fully done, it has not been made public at this point.

The city's adequate building site uh analysis and appendix B of the report is deficient, inconsistent, and incomplete.

For example, the city proposes to amend table B3.

Uh there's a summary of the pipeline projects, but it fails to provide an amended figure two.

The projects in the pipeline are not fully updated yet from your staff and have not been made public uh at this time.

Uh instead of, and this is quite clear.

Um, it's been quite clear from HCD and it's quite clear from your staff tonight, um, and I know they're they're doing what they can to move forward.

Um, the city is um deciding to adopt an affordability housing overlay instead of adopting a housing overlay.

The city is proposing.

Next speaker, please.

Next speaker, please.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening, mayor, city council.

My name is Cesar Cobarrubias.

I'm the executive director for the Kennedy Commission.

I want to take the opportunity to uh just remind everybody where we're at.

We're in Orange County, a county where it's expensive to live.

A county where cities that are on the coast are even more expensive.

Uh the median income for Orange County just went up to 139,000.

That means that we have a lot of working families in our cities and our county that are struggling to make ends meet, and this is why it's important to ensure that housing opportunities are created in every segment, including affordable housing and above moderate housing.

Um, for Orange County, we need about 120,000 new affordable housing units, and that's not Huntington Beach's burden alone, it's the counties.

The difference is that every single city in the county has a compliant housing element and each and Huntington Beach is not.

So it is time for us to be able to look at this opportunity to work together, move forward uh with a housing element that's gonna be fully compliant, that's gonna have the right resources and policies and programs to ensure that you're successful in creating those opportunities for working families.

And who we're talking about are families that are making 30,000 all the way to 100,000, 100,000 uh a year in Orange County is a family who's low income.

That's astonishing, but that's who we're dealing with.

Tonight in the audience, you had several individuals who came up and told you their stories about their struggles in Huntington Beach and not being able to afford to live because they don't have housing that is affordable to them, and that creates instability for them.

The figures that were um outlined today by your staff in terms of the progress outlined the critical need to ensure that this housing element has all the right tools and it is also appropriate with the policies and programs.

We saw that only about 10% of the affordable housing has been developed or is in the pipeline in this city at this point.

If you counter that or you compare it to what market rate development uh has been achieving here in the city, we've we've been able to create about 50% of that arena already for the above moderate housing.

So that just tells you that we need those policies that are going to be consistent for affordable housing to ensure that we have affordability.

I would urge you to not only look at this as an opportunity to submit a housing element to HCD within your timeline, but submit a housing element that's actually gonna be compliant and that's gonna address the the outlines that were provided by HCD and also by the Kennedy Commission and other stakeholders in the community in terms of comments to you as a result of that draft.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Eric Evans, homeowner taxpayer Huntington Beach.

I saw you earlier and told you I was a retired deputy fire marshal with the largest fire agency in Orange County that handles 23 cities and 17 unincorporated areas of the county.

So this issue of the housing element, I've been on the forefront and asked as a fire official: isn't there any way we can deal with the call loads, the increased paramedic runs, the congestion, the inability to uh have decent response times, water flow?

I've heard it all.

I've heard it all.

And I can tell you from working with that many jurisdictions, including sitting at the council meeting in October of 25 for the city of Luguna Hills, who had to go through a builder's remedy, of which this city has put us at risk as citizens for builders' remedy and wait till the public finds out what that will do to your city.

So for them, it was in 22 50 um luxury townhomes that turned itself into 200 high density five-story apartment complex in Laguna Hills that they're mandatorily because of builders' remedy because they don't have a housing element that's certified that they're exposed to, and we've been exposed to it over and over again.

I live near Perry School.

What do you think that piece of dirt will support if the state of California says no zoning requirements for Huntington Beach?

Wide open development.

It'll be a seven-story, 500 unit apartment complex.

I'm not an agent for the state.

Don't get me wrong.

I'm not an agent for the state.

I think we all agree on that affordability and density and all of this is a concern.

All of it is, but we're not the state of California, and I think the public needs to understand in Huntington Beach that we're paid a high price for you trying to be a sovereign nation inside of the state of California and do your own rule of law.

What you've what we've paid for as citizens now what we're on the line for is $50,000 a month to a hundred thousand dollars a month plus plus.

What you've got us into is we are gonna become the example in the state of California and the nation of how you can't go against your state.

Our fight is not locally, it's with Sacramento.

And you all know that.

Your city attorney, your outstanding development director.

Your city manager.

V all told you this is a losing battle.

So that ego, that fight, you've cost us a fortune, and we still don't have a housing element.

We should have had a housing element that was certified at the beginning of the year.

Now we're still not ready, as Daniel has said.

So I implore you, stop the madness.

Because your political career will be over, and you're not going on to hire office like Gracie or anybody else's, or like Strickland, for putting the citizens of Huntington Beach into this.

We're the laughing stock of every city in Orange County.

There's no city that's with you.

None.

They all realize this was a fight that wasn't worth fighting and putting their citizens on the line.

You fight the builders' rip.

All right.

Any more speakers?

I'm gonna close the public clearing.

Council discussion.

All right, all right, Mayor, my fellow colleagues.

What I have here is 1,000 173 pages that represent the housing element that was posted by the city on May 14th for public review.

As we've heard from the Kennedy Commission, some of the representatives today, their concerns is that a lot of this is still not compliant.

And I would just suggest that the passage of time since May 14th has not been a reasonable amount of time for the public, let alone you know our council to review all of these documents thoroughly to review the changes to this housing element.

And now we have received remarks from the Kennedy Commission who intervened against us in the lawsuit, stating that revisions are still insufficient and far from compliant.

We also have comments from the homeless united HB identifying factual heirs in the emergency shelter analysis, including uh Oasis apartments transition to permanent supportive housing last year and should no longer be counted toward our shelter capacity.

So adopting this tonight would mean we are voting on something that neither the public nor this council has had adequate time to fully understand and correct.

And so we do want to be reasonable and responsive.

We acknowledge that there is a court order to supply a housing element, and I believe I speak on behalf of all of us that we do recognize that, but again, we want to be reasonable and responsive to the public and the issues that have been repeatedly raised uh here tonight.

Thus, I would like to make a motion for a continuance to the next regularly scheduled council meeting, June 16th, which will provide us the time that we need to do this properly and create a strong record.

Second, Councilmember Williams, before we vote, I also want to encourage people.

The Orange County grand jury just issued a report about the California housing mandates, the unintended reshaping of the Orange County neighborhoods.

It's only a couple days old.

You can find it online.

Please, in this time period before the next meeting, read that as well.

And it's it's very informative, and I highly recommend you read it.

Yeah, I want to.

We just received some new letter from the Kennedy Commission.

And I want I didn't see it until right before we came up here.

So I haven't even had a chance to read that thing.

I don't know when we got it, but it had to be yesterday at the earliest, if not this afternoon.

So I don't think it's fair that.

And also to correct his comment, it hasn't cost the city millions of dollars.

So I just want to put that on the record as well.

All right, motion a second.

Councilman Gruhl, yes.

Councilman Kennedy, yes, Mayor Potem Twiny.

Yes.

Mayor McKeon?

Yes.

Councilman Burns.

Councilman Williams.

Yes.

Motion passes 601.

All right.

Next on the agenda is the administrative public hearing status of City of Huntington Beach vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts pursuant to government code section 3502.3.

Madam Clerk, do we have any supplemental communications for this item?

Item number 15.

One email received regarding the status of City of Huntington Beach vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts pursuant to government code section 3502 point three.

Staff, please introduce the report.

Alright, good evening.

Tonight I'll be giving a brief presentation regarding a status update on recruitment and retention efforts.

This is pursuant to government code section 3502.

So a quick background on this one.

This added government code section 3502.3 to the law amending the Myers-Millius Brown Act.

And it imposed new obligations on public agencies related to tracking and presenting information on vacancies.

Beginning January 1, 2025, agencies must present this information at a public hearing before the agency's governing body at least once per fiscal year and prior to budget adoption, which is why I bring it to you tonight.

I will say that last year was the first year that we did this report.

We've included the vacancy rate for last year as well as this year's update.

So you'll see a quick overview of the number of vacancies compared to the total number of budgeted positions, giving the agency a total vacancy rate of 12 and a half percent as of January 1, 2026.

Again, it's a point in time count, so not current to today.

So something to note for this law is that the information behind it uh requires that this information be tracked by bargaining unit, and part of the reason for this report is that if any vacancy rate by bargaining unit is more than 20%, then that would uh require the agencies to provide additional information to the employee bargaining groups if they ask for it.

That may include the total number of applications received for any of their covered vacant positions, the average number of days to complete the hiring process, and what opportunities exist to improve compensation or other working conditions.

Uh you'll note on this chart that none of our represented bargaining units are above 20%.

The only one that is higher than that is our non-associated, not a covered bargaining unit.

So looking at the recruitment efforts, uh, we currently have 40 current job postings.

This is open competitive, promotional, and continuous recruitments, a combination of those.

There are currently 30 eligibility lists, which means there's some some portion of the recruitment process in place currently.

We often meet with departments to discuss recruitment strategies with the hiring managers, and we determine appropriate job posting sites and marketing strategies, customize the job announcements to make sure we're reaching the right group.

Uh we review the projected recruitment timelines with these uh parties as well and assess ongoing recruitment activities.

And that's the end of my report.

Council members, any questions on the report?

All right, I'm gonna open the public hearing.

Madam Clerk, do we have anyone signed up to speak?

We have one person, Pat Goodman.

She might have left.

All right.

Close the public hearing, council discussion.

None.

None.

And then I'm sorry, I forgot to mention this, but this is a receive and file.

Okay.

So receive and file the report.

Right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, city manager's report study session proposed budget review.

City manager, please introduce the report.

Thank you, Mayor.

City Council.

Um tonight is a continued study session from our last city council meeting.

And um we have um Zach C and Robert Um Saladji here, and we have um the remainder um of city staff available for your discussion.

Um, I believe the report that you have is this the one that was um previously presented at the last council meeting.

And so if the council would like to receive that again, um, they they're we're here to do that or um proceed as you um choose.

Council members in direction, want to go through it again.

I don't have any questions.

Uh I just a couple maybe questions.

It was it was very helpful to hear from the folks that showed up over the yacht club and to see the photos.

Now I completely understand why that dock needs definitely a lot of uh repair.

That's the so um I'm trying to remember though, how much should we allocate for them there?

Because if I remember off the top of my head, I think it was 400,000 dollars.

Okay, and so they they give a cost estimate a breakdown here, and I mean it the way everything totals up, it looks like it's it's somewhere in the vicinity of about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

So, you know, I don't granted this was uh November 19, 2024, so I'm sure through infl inflation prices go up, but why are why are we putting in 400,000 to allocate for it?

Because we're going north of that by I can address that.

Yes, thank you.

Thank you, council member.

So we did do a cost estimate, and the cost estimate we have from August 21st, 2025, are repairs.

It is a repair option.

It is not for full replacement, the repair option considers replacing of the decking, the floats, the hardware, the gangway, and installation of three lighting pedestals.

That cost was two hundred and twenty-four thousand dollars.

However, that rec that cost is not it only improves the surface condition.

It does not restore the age structural frame.

The 400,000 that is submitted in our CIP sheet is full replacement.

It is everything, it includes dock reconstruction, new structural frame, the floats, the decking, the gameway lighting, and also it restores the full structure, and it encompasses a new full warranty.

So the warranty is new as well.

So that is the alternative that we explored.

How long would that last?

So the repairs will last.

No, how long would the new one?

Yeah, 25 to 30 years.

And and so would this go out for like a professional service uh bid?

Okay.

So we're we're allocating up to 400,000, but not necessarily going to spend the full 400,000, and we would ideally get like a rule of three, like three correct bidders.

We would go out to bid.

Okay.

Um, did you see this Swift slip dock in Pier Builders Inc.

I mean, this is just a document that was shared with us.

Maybe this didn't come from you, but this was for a full replacement.

They added up about 250,000.

I have not seen that cost estimate.

Okay.

And that's not the same contractor we use.

We used a different contract.

Got it.

Well, it's good to know it go out to a competitive bid, so hopefully we'll get some real competition there.

Um, and then another one that I had raised before was about uh the sports complex and the parking lot money that was going to be allocated towards another phase for uh the lighting.

Uh I I would like to see that money go towards uh getting the batting cages uh going again, and so I would like to just simply make a motion for this go around to allocate that money towards uh reconstructing uh the batting cages because I do believe that's something the community wants, and if the lighting is extremely important too, um I'm sure we can you know direct the city manager to find those funds to to make that happen along the way, but I would like to prioritize put ahead of that the the batting cages.

The community has expressed a strong desire for that.

So I would just like to make a motion to adjust that.

I can I like uh that bat and cage is sore subject with me.

But yeah, I'll second that.

Okay.

Are we allowed to give any context on on uh councilman's uh motion prior to the vote?

Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, discussion motion second.

So yeah, go for it.

Yeah, we all love the batting cages.

The only reason I'm not prepared to support an independent build of the batting cages is because in a very short period of time, it's the current operators are gonna be bringing before the city.

They've been working with the department heads.

In a very short period of time, there's gonna be a you know a study session or public hearing or both on a much grander, holistic approach to the entire sports complex, which includes a state-of-the-art batting cage facility enclosed in in basically Dublin as an academy, so multi-use, high-tech machines that'll all be part of their capital expenditure.

So, you know, I'm not personally gonna be able to support this vote, although I love the batting cages, because I want to see what we uh discuss and vote on regarding the much larger scaled uh sports complex initiative because I guarantee part of it, should it pass, does include a full blown batting facility indoor with uh a lot of additional uses, just in case anybody else doesn't know what's coming downrage in the range in the form of a proposal study session.

Um, I'm with you, yeah.

I'm with you, Don as well, because that's coming in short order, and should that even go sideways in the future.

We have one time funds that could fund the batting cages later, but I think it's premature when this big grand proposal is coming towards in front of us in short order through a study session.

So I I won't support that either.

Would would it be reasonable to at least just uh direct staff to come up with kind of a general budget in the event we could look at it when we're looking at the grand proposal to say, okay, look, the batting cages are gonna cost X, the grand proposal obviously separately, but then we can kind of determine oh well if we want a piecemeal or what what the cost benefit on that is.

Sure, because I think it'll be part of that the future study session anyway.

But yeah, yeah, definitely.

Just so at least we direct the staff that they're ready that when we look at that, we're looking at it through the lens of what the standalone batting cages would cost, and we can determine how that plays out through the budget.

That's fine.

Given that information, I'll withdraw my second.

Okay.

All right.

I'll just make a remark that I think that there's a big assumption that we're making that we're gonna go forward with the current operators for them to pull off their grant proposal.

And it's just kind of hard to have a little bit of faith in terms of whether or not they're going to be pulling pulling that off considering that you know contractually they were obligated to keep these batting cages uh operating, they're responsible for the hardware, it's contractual.

On top of that, they're supposed to have the concession stands open by the library, and since the inception of this agreement, they have not gotten this concession stands open.

They're supposed to have them open 100 uh days out of the year.

Um I get I guess my I guess let me rephrase this because kind of what I'm thinking about goal-wise here is is that if we move forward and we're saying, okay, look, we're looking at a quote.

If we were going to build new batting cages, right?

We know that's not gonna happen in two weeks.

And then I don't know the timing on when we're gonna see the proposal for a potential sports complex.

So if we're moving forward with that, if ultimately then we've got that on track, and then at least we're not losing time waiting for the sports complex proposal because in the event we don't like the wholesale approach on the sports complex proposal, then we can say, Okay, let's continue moving forward on the batting cages.

So we're running two strategies concurrently as if we're operating to build the batting cages, but we can always pull that back too, so that we don't have a duplicative measure.

Yeah.

And I mean, I would just remark too that I mean, since I've gotten on council and you know, the three of us, we've we've been told that it's coming.

This grand proposal has been coming and it's been coming, and it's almost two years now.

Um, I'm not too optimistic in terms of whether or not they're gonna pull that off, and if none of that succeeds, then we don't have these batting cages.

But I appreciate councilman uh Grohl's suggestion to kind of in parallel, you know, run a cost analysis to figure out what it would what it would take to get it operating, and we'll just direct staff to do that.

I'm fine with that.

Cool.

That's fine.

Any other questions on the budget?

Um yeah, I would to as if we're kind of looking at some of the items here.

One of the items that I've been talking with community members about that I think would be really important.

I also discussed this with Chow, is the uh uh the irrigation uh central park irrigation plan.

Uh we had chatted about that.

Is it possible to look at pulling that into the budget and then perhaps delaying another improvement project based on needs?

Yes, we can evaluate that if that's the council's desire and bring that um at the next council meeting.

Uh or when the budget comes forward.

So what the irrigation plan is is it a millions of dollars?

Like how much is that?

Seven I think it's seventy thousand dollars,000, Mayor.

Just the plan itself.

Yes.

Not to implement the irrigation improvements.

Has the plan been done?

The plan hasn't been done.

Okay.

I was wondering I want to make sure we're saying the same thing because the volunteers said they were gonna pay for the plan to then implement the irrigation system upgrades, which is substantial cost.

Well, I guess I would ask Chow, do we have a plan in place?

Do we still need to do a plan for the We have no plan in place?

Okay, so then step one, we would have to develop the plan and then determine what that would fully cost.

Yeah, that I just want to make sure we're saying the same thing because the the Central Park volunteers had offered, I think it was last year, to pay for the money to create the plan itself.

But then estimates, Chow, to implement those uh infrastructure upgrades.

Do you have an idea what that would cost, Chow?

So the initial step that we're proposing is to do a master plan first.

That master plan is estimated at $70,000.

Okay.

Central Park is $343 acres.

Yes.

It is massive.

Right.

We we cannot do this overnight.

There has to be phasing, there has to be different zones within Central Park.

It needs to be divided so we can be strategic about what we do and how we do it, and that it all pieces together.

We have to determine a strategy on you know what how much irrigation lines we want to install out there because we're gonna expand the network in Honey from Central Park.

We want more irrigation.

We need to make sure that it's it's appropriate and it's size properly.

So it'll be multiple phases, probably multiple years until we get there.

And so it has to be step by step strategic and cost estimated properly so we can do it each year.

We can do more and do more each year and build upon that irrigation plan because it is huge.

343 acres.

But it actually, am I correct though?

The volunteers said they had the they raised the money to pay for the plan.

At the Central Park Collaborative, there has been discussion about the Central Park Collaborative Group um providing funding towards a Central Park Master Plan irrigation or Central Park Irrigation Master Plan.

Um we can go back and confirm with with those folks tomorrow.

Okay.

I guess then I guess my goal would be to let's get the process in place to make sure that we get a master plan going.

Yeah, I don't know if I don't know if I'm comfortable budgeting for it now, but akin to the sports complex, maybe come back with some updates from the volunteers on what that looks like and the actual cost, and then I guess discuss it later.

We would do yeah, so we I mean we've got two weeks, right?

So we can we can look at that over the next two weeks and then see about how we get it put in place in some capacity.

So and just on the budget, just for logistics, if we pass tonight, can you make final edits next meeting?

Yeah, okay.

Just uh my two cents.

Um irrigation is gonna be in in several millions of dollars.

So I think everybody understands that.

Uh I can tell you, you know, because I've been around golf courses my whole entire life, and an average golf course is between 80 and 120 acres, the you know, the the central park is three times that much, and uh we've gotten numbers for my you know the Huntington Club, and it's in the and it's in the two and a half to three million dollar range, and that's only uh ninety acres.

So, anyway, just so you know there's a lot of that park though that wouldn't need the irrigation, right?

There's the lake area, there's quite a bit that really wouldn't be uh require any irrigation.

So, okay, any other questions?

No question on that, but just for clarity, I looked over at Director Wizaki.

Just for point of clarity, uh are we close to seeing a presentation from the sports complex operators?

Yes, our city team continues to meet with HBSC weekly, and um we saw a near final document that um will be ready to present to council in the very near future.

Okay, and for certainty, part of that scope, they do have allocated drawings of a fully enclosed batting cage environment, correct?

Yes, that's correct.

Okay, and I'm not opposed to, you know, bifurcating and having two tracks in case it doesn't go through, but I just want everybody to know that they are close to presenting and whatever happens happens, but the batting cage is an integral part of their bigger plan.

Well, I think the common theme, I've said it several times, I know others have as well, is we're in a situation where we have to bring in more revenue and harness the private sector where we can to help offload some expense, especially on improving our city.

And in my opinion, the sports complex is a perfect opportunity for that.

Probably the biggest one we have in front of us to bring in the private sector to invest in our assets and then also bring them our revenue.

So it's really close.

So let's give it a fair shot to come forward and have a study session to talk about it.

If I could ask Director uh Wasaki too, I know the finance commission had had some questions about the certificate of occupancy with the applicants.

Do they have a current certificate of occupancy for the concession stand that they're operating right now?

I would defer to community development on that one since they are responsible for permits.

G V.

What's the question?

Sorry.

We're just talking sports complex, and the finance commission had raised a question about whether or not the current operators have a certificate of occupancy that's that's current right now at the concession that they have open and operating.

Is that current for the record?

No, they don't have a C of O.

How does that work?

Like they're open.

So councilman, this piece isn't uh as part of the budget discussion, the C of O.

Fair enough.

I mean, we're just talking about grand plans for the future.

I was trying to figure out where our footing is right now.

Zach and Robert really quickly, so you this has been great because every meeting we've been discussing this so that there's a lot more transparency out here.

We can get into all the details.

I think this is really good process.

Now, is it possible that like on a quarterly basis we can look at um you know where we're at with the budget?

You know, right now we're doing it twice, right?

Once halfway through the year and then once going into the uh final budget for each year.

Is that is that a possibility?

Correct.

We uh we've been we provided uh a second quarter report and then a year end.

So we could certainly do a quarterly report uh at your request, absolutely.

Okay.

And then also I just so a lot of people understand the way in which it's not as simple as, because I mean I've even asked this and pressed you guys on this, it's not as simple as just pressing a button and suddenly all the numbers are up on the website.

I mean, to really get into the detail and drilling down into every single budget line item.

You've got various programs that are cross-communicating with each other, and even for you as being the heads of these, you know, of the numbers, numbers guys, um, it's difficult to find a lot of this.

However, you did mention, so I just wanted to bring attention to it that you are in the process of modernizing and changing some of those systems so that it is a lot easier to get that information uh pulled out in more detail on a go forward basis where it will we can put it, you know, make it a little bit more transparent to the public on a drill down basis.

Now, obviously, not you know 25,000 line items.

Yes, that's correct.

Uh Zach and I have been working on automations and drill down um efforts in Excel.

Um we have a few uh primary uh applications, and we're hoping that we'll have uh more detailed uh four-year review next budget cycle.

That's our goal.

Cool.

Thank you.

One one thing that came out of our meeting uh that I like that one phrase that you use, and I'm just gonna allow you to elaborate on it because I I like the phrase ending operating at a surplus, but we budget as a deficit.

Give some clarity just for the city, you know, it it it makes a lot of sense, and it's contrary at the start and finish of the words surplus and deficit, but you want to just give us a 30-second overview kind of what you did yesterday with me in butch.

Um so when when you have a budget, the first thing you're gonna do with your budget is you're gonna budget your revenues conservative.

So that's the first piece of it.

You don't want to overextend your revenues, but you don't want to under budget them.

So a very conservative budget is three per is approximately three percent, and we we budget it slightly above three percent.

So we we took that approach.

And then the second piece um that uh what you would do inside of a budget is you have to account for every single position.

You can't just account for a partial position, so you account for every single one.

So that makes a um again a conservative approach for your personnel.

So when you budget, if you have a deficit, when you're doing that, it's a it's a warning sign.

It's a warning sign that you could uh be in some kind of structural um this position.

And so then that's when as council you'll you will want to take actions, and which you guys have done over the past uh three years, which is why you've budgeted a deficit, but you end it in a surplus.

So when your revenues came in slightly more than what you budgeted, which is what you're supposed to do, and you've taken and placed uh several good metrics to control your expenditures so at the end of the year you actually end it with the surplus.

Thank you, Robert.

And you and Zach have done a fantastic job with your presentations internally, uh the detail, the visuals, the answers to the questions.

I personally appreciate it.

I think I would imagine everybody on this diet does as well.

So thank you guys.

We appreciate you.

Robert, just and touch on the Calpers piece too, right?

Because that's like a projection, and it's kind of backward looking, and you know, some good years, and then that catches up to years later, right?

Correct.

So for our pension costs, um, that's an increase, and it's a variable depending on the way it calipers sets their rates for their staffing, um, for the staffing levels, for um uh adjustments to their uh salaries, and so this fiscal year, it cost us approximately 9 million more, and um as the years go on it it could cost more, but we are they also put into place a pepper system for the pension plan.

So the pepper system should eventually and and the turning corner is about 2045.

So so we might not be here, but some of the younger generations will, but it should create a turning point to actually start creating relief in our pension system.

Okay, any other questions, comments, guys?

I'll make the motion to receive the proposed budget for fiscal year 26-27, and then set the date for adoption of the city budget as June 16, 2026.

That's all right, second.

I'm sorry, buddy.

Councilman Krull.

Yes.

Councilman Kennedy?

Yes, Mayor Pro Tem Twiny, yes, Mayor McKeon.

Yes.

Councilman Burns.

Hi.

Council Councilman Williams.

Yes.

Item passes 601.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you.

City treasurer's report.

My meter presentation.

State your name, please.

Do I need to pull it up or you're gonna pull it up?

Okay.

Good evening, everyone.

Uh, so this is gonna be in a receiving file.

Uh, before we dig into the presentation, I want to say a huge thank you.